Return
by Dragoon-Yue
Summary: As Guardian Cosmos had warned Sailor Moon in the Galaxy Cauldron, Chaos has returned. This time Crystal Tokyo has fallen. Desperate to save the future - yet again - Chibiusa has returned to the past in a bid that she's not even sure will work. Discontinued. Up for Adoption.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Okay, I am following the manga timeline almost exclusively. That means that Mamoru has gray eyes instead of deep blue and Artemis isn't such a goofball all the time. Oh and Naru/Molly and Melvin/Umino aren't dating, however cute they are together in the anime.

The other series in this chapter that gets mentioned is YuYuHakusho, but don't worry if you're not familiar with it; I will do my best to write it so that you don't have to know anything about the series. That said, for those who are familiar with it I am following the manga, so no fire-engine red hair, emerald green eyes and don't call Kurama a girl because it pisses him off. Also there is nothing romantic between him and Hiei.

As for those of you unfamiliar with the Japanese names of the Sailor Moon crew, or the honorifics used in Japanese, here they are:

HONORIFICS

'-chan' an affectionate suffix usually used by girls and/or for girls.

'-kun' is the male equivalent of '-chan'.

'-san' is similar to Mrs., Mr., Miss, ect.

'-sama' is very respectful, usually translated as 'lord/lady', which isn't entirely accurate.

'-dono' is even more respectful than '-sama' and - as far as my brother, who is learning Japanese can make - out generally only used by warriors.

NAMES

With Japanese names it's surname first, given name second. To hopefully make it easier to remember think of it this way; "I am from _ family and my name is _."

SailorMoon/Serena – Previously 'Tsukino' Usagi, now Chiba Usagi ('Usako', used only by Mamoru/Darien)

Tuxedo Mask/Darien – Chiba Mamoru ('Mamo-chan', used only by Usagi)

Sailor Mercury/Amy – Mizino Ami

Sailor Mars/Raye – Hino Rei

Sailor Jupiter/Lita – Kino Makoto ('Mako-chan')

Sailor Venus/Mina – Aino Minako ('Mina-chan', so it should be easier to remember her Japanese name)

Sailor Neptune/Michelle – Kaioh Michiru

Sailor Uranus/Amara – Tenoh Haruka

Sailor Pluto/Trista – Meioh Setsuna

Sailor Saturn/Hotaru – Tomoe Hotaru ('Hota-chan')

Molly – Naru

Luna – Luna

Artemis – Artemis

Diana – Diana

Melvin – Umino

Andrew – Furuhata Motoki ('Furu-chan', by the girls)

The cats - obviously - don't have any known surnames and I can't remember Naru's or Umino's.

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><p>Twenty year old Chiba Usagi – formerly Tsukino Usagi – woke up in the arms of her beloved prince and, like most mornings, smiled, happy to be married to him. Usually he'd already be up and making breakfast since he refuses to let her turn the kitchen into a disaster zone... Unless she wanted to make some curry or chilly, both of which she's quite good at making. According to Artemis food on the Silver Millennium had been spicy and Princess Serenity had been quite the cook when she felt like it.<p>

Mamoru stirred and opened his gray eyes to stare up at Usagi groggily for several moments before her smile infected him and he smiled back.

"Morning Usako." He greeted.

Her smile widened a bit more and she returned the greeting, "Morning Mamo-chan. Did you have to stay really late at work last night?"

Normally she would have tried to stay up and wait for him, but at two and a half months pregnant that was not an option as far as her body was concerned. It was in the process of making a new life and that was tiring; her body demanded sleep and her husband insisted that she listen. Who was she to argue with the doctor's orders?

"Yeah. There was a bad traffic accident." He answered, "Then someone picked a fight with a Youkai."

For the last three years Youkai had stopped hiding themselves from Humans for unknown reasons and Humans haven't always been reacting well. More than once the Senshi had to intervene before someone got killed – and it wasn't always Humans that they had to save. Amazingly the police had been staying fairly neutral in their judgments regarding the incidents, not always, but most of the time. Usagi suspected that this was Venus' and Artemis' doing since they were the ones on the police force in the Inter-Racial Investigations Division (IRID), though the other girls had been considering joining as well for legal reasons.

An uncharacteristic smirk pulled at one side of Mamoru's mouth and he added, "It was the Youkai and his Human buddy that brought the Human into the ER. I think his friend called him Yusuke."

"Was Yusuke the Human or the Youkai?"

"He was the Youkai."

Usagi giggled.

"I think he might be the same Yusuke that Mina-chan has worked with a couple of times. He owns a noodle shop... Oh, poo, I can't remember where."

Her husband chuckled, rolled until he was half on top of her – she rolled as well, since she was on her side – leaned down and gave her a lingering, bone-melting kiss. When he pulled away she let a little content sigh as a smile pulled at her lips.

"I'll go make breakfast." He murmured against her mouth.

She pouted as he pulled back; the kiss he had just given her had made her think that they were going make love this (late) morning.

"We still have to meet up with the others Usako." He reminded her with a slight smile "But tonight should be calm, so I probably wont get called in."

One of the advantages of him being able to use his Golden Crystal now was that it amplifies and gives him full access to his powers, which had been steadily growing since he had been revived from Galaxia killing him. That means that always in the background of his mind now is a sense of what's going on with the planet in general and the area he's in, or someone he knows. It is very literally impossible to hide from Mamoru as long as you're on the planet, he knows you and he wants to find you.

He gave her a peck on the nose, then rolled off of her and climbed off of the king-sized bed. When Usagi had first moved into the large apartment everything had been dark colors and leather. She had since added a few feminine touches, particularly to the bedroom, although Mamoru refused to have a bunny-print bedspread. He had, however, compromised with with the bedspreads. This one was a black and white floral print comforter with gold-thread embroidery accents. The sheets were all white and the and two of the four pillows on their bed had black pillowcases, while the other two had a matching print to the comforter.

The two side tables on either side of the bed were dark-stained wood with simple lines. On Usagi's was a pink and white bunny lamp that went with her pink and white vanity against the wall opposite the bed. The walls had, once upon a time, been a stark white, but Usagi had talked him into painting them. After some arguing over the matter of what color to go with they had managed to agree on a mural of the Silver Millennium and the Solaris Palace where Prince Endymion had grown up. It had taken some begging and pleading on Usagi's part, but Michiru – Sailor Neptune – had eventually agreed to paint it, so across all four walls was that mural. She had done both at sunset, so on the ceiling she had painted a sky that faded from the brilliant colors of dusk into stars.

These days Michiru was making a lot of money painting murals all over Japan and – for the rest of this month – in other countries. Her most famous ones, though, were depictions from that long-gone era; people were simply fascinated by them, speculating – mostly erroneously – about stories going on in those images. Michiru was always careful not to depict her friends, except in the background, if at all.

Still pouting, Usagi rolled out off of the bed and – like her devastatingly handsome husband – started changing out of her less-than-sexy pajamas and into some pink denim shorts, with a matching, short top, pulling on a darker pink belt. She pulled on some white socks, then slid her feet into her fluffy, bunny slippers; a gift for her last birthday from Mamoru. Usagi had been so happy when she got them that she had squealed loud enough for the neighbors to ask later about what they had heard. She had sheepishly explained.

The happily married couple exited the bedroom, went down the cheerfully painted green hallway and stepped into the livingroom. They had almost painted the room a dark red, but Michiru – who, by then, had really gotten into helping them paint the apartment – had convinced them to do the kitchen in that color instead and let her do another mural. This one was only on one wall because the others weren't available for it; one led straight to the front door, the wall opposite had a floor-to-ceiling window with a sliding glass door and where that one met actual wall it led into the kitchen. So it was the wall with the TV that got the mural, though only on the upper half. The lower half was painted a softer green with a flowering vine as a divider and, above that, a depiction of Elision's temple; Pegasus flew in the sunny sky and, if you looked closely, Helios stood, looking out over the crystalline, clear lake that was so close to the back of the almost Greek-style temple.

It was a beautiful, fanciful and magical depiction that the couple loved, and new their daughter would adore.

As Mamoru went to the kitchen Usagi headed for the phone, passing by the spot Mamoru used to keep the Shitennou's stones. About six months before she and her beloved had said their vows he had finally told her about the guys and introduced her to them, since she hadn't met them in this life except as the brainwashed minions of Beryl. When Kunzite had told her what had happened to their bodies Usagi had berated them all for not telling her sooner what had happened and restored them. They had decided afterwards that they would keep their distance and asked that they not tell the girls. They still occasionally came by for a visits though; Usagi had even seen them discreetly watching the wedding ceremony that they had politely declined coming to. It had earned them being called hypocrites by the annoyed couple for sometime afterwards. They had taken it in good stride. But neither of them had ever pressed the four to make their revival known, or let her and Mamoru tell the others for them because they both suspected that it was guilt that made them keep their silence.

Usagi picked up the phone and dialed Ami first. After graduating highschool the Senshi of Ice and knowledge had decided to take a four year break – which was coming to an end come next spring – before entering into medical school. Although she still had a habit of studying rather late... On top of that the girls often have to run around alot, intervening in inter-racial incidents. As a result they can get rather busy and plans often get canceled because of this, especially in summer. Up until two and half months ago Usagi had been running around with them. Then, abruptly, she couldn't transform anymore. Her husband was the one who had figured it out, although he had gotten Mercury to confirm her preganancy.

Usagi reconfirmed with each of the girls that they were all still meeting up at Rae's, although Venus and Artemis would be held up at the police station for about a half hour. That done the expecting mother then picked up the baby clothing magazines off of the glass-topped, metal coffee table and made a mental note to talk to Mamoru about getting one that's a little more child-safe.

* * *

><p>Earlier in the morning both Aino Minako – aka, Sailor Venus – and her white-furred, green-eyed tomcat partner had been rudely awakened at 4AM when a club had been attacked. The tech guys had estimated that it would take awhile to clear up the fuzzy images they had of the assailant, which was why she had told Usagi that she would be a bit late. The others on the force had overheard her conversation, though, and when it became obvious that it was going to take longer than expected they had told her that she was good to go since she can't help anymore anyway; they'd call her when they had something. This was not how things were usually done, but the IRID (<strong>I<strong>nter-**R**acial **I**nvestigations **D**ivision) knew full well about her duty to her princess and even knew – out of necessity, though it had taken them over a year to earn the Senshi's trust enough to be told – the identities of all the girls and Mamoru.

In the case of the former Prince of Earth they had figured it out since Usagi hadn't wanted to tell them. But he had saved more than one of those on the force via healing while helping the girls and also while as a doctor and they had just put two and two together on their own. Sometimes those two could be a bit over protective of eachother, but that isn't very surprising.

Stepping out of her sweltering car – despite the windows being down – Minako gasped as steam seemed to float up from behind her and cursed her broken AC as she stumbled a few steps away. Artemis fell onto the ground at her feet and clawed his way across the cement and away from the giant steam-box of a vehicle. Once suitably far enough away from the death-trap he passed out.

"Oh my God! Artemis!" Minako ran over, forgetting in her hast to close her car door, and dropped down next to the tomcat, "I promise! I will get a convertible this year!"

Fishing around desperately in the pockets of her long, white cotton vest – none of the buttons done up at the moment – Minako couldn't find her cell phone. Giving up, she used the communicator on her wrist, deciding that this qualifies as an emergency since her partner was currently being baked alive on the cement; heat exhaustion, if untreated and/or exacerbated, can kill a person.

The communicator had since been updated to work over longer distances – anywhere on the globe – and was designed to call any or all of the girls, the cats and Mamoru. Consequently, it now looks different from the way it did before; the communicators are now wide bangles in each Senshi's respective color with a symbol for everyone on them arranged in two triangles on either side of the round gem in the middle. The crystal itself is both the computer system for the device and their Sailor Crystals; their powers had 'upgraded' about a year and a half ago during The Incident and their communicators now doubled as their transformation devices.

Taking the bangle off by grabbing one end of it and pulling to make it straighten out Minako pressed the Mercury symbol, flipped it over and waited impatiently, ignoring the discomfort of her feet sliding forward in her white, wedge sandals. The crystal pressing into her palm warmed slightly – though it would get no warmer than that – moments before Ami's worried face appeared on the screen.

_"Mina-chan, what is it?"_ She asked anxiously.

"It's Artemis! He's collapsed from the heat! I need help! I can't pick him up, or I'm going to make it worse!"

_"Alright, I'm on my way,"_ Minako could see the background behind her friend move in a way that clearly showed she was standing up,_ "But I don't know what I can do..."_

"The water in my water bottle is about as cold as the Sahara desert in the middle of the day right now."

Understanding dawned on Ami's face and she said, _"Oh! Alright, I'll see you in a few minutes... Uh, where are you?"_

Minako told her which parking lot they were in and her fellow Senshi nodded once, reiterated that she would be there soon and cut the signal. The back of the bangle went blank again. Minako stood up, pressed the communicator onto her wrist and let go so that it wrapped around again. Anxious, she started pacing. Noticing that her car door was still open and the windows all down she climbed into the drivers seat – trying to ignore the waves of heat radiating from the vehicle and baking the inside of the car – long enough to use the button to roll up the windows and use the power lock for the doors. While she was climbing out of the sweltering car Minako wished that the parking lot had some shade... And then realized that it might be a good idea to stand between the tomcat and the sun so that **he** at least had some shade.

Pushing the car door shut with a bang, she walked over to her partner.

A few minutes later and Ami found Minako – her thick, blond hair caught up in a large, slightly messy bun high on her head to keep it off of her neck – still standing over Artemis, providing shade. Rushing over Ami immediately dumped the freezing cold water in her one liter water bottle onto Artemis. The contents of Makoto's – Sailro Jupiter's – bottle followed next, effectively waking Artemis up.

"Are you alright?" Both girls asked at the same time.

Picking himself up with a groan Artemis looked over at the two anxious girls, a bit embarrassed at the situation. After a moment's debate he decided to not shake the worst of the water off and instead leave it to evaporate; it would keep him cooler for longer that way.

"I'll be fine." He told them, "Let's just get to Rae's."

"Are you sure?" Ami asked, still concerned.

"Yeah," He answered, "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

The two girls nodded and straightened, letting Artemis lead the way.

For this blistering heat Minako had on under her airy vest a lilac halter top that left her entire midriff bare and hip-high, draw-string, light yellow, cotton shorts. Holding her hair in it's bun was a black hair tie with a thin, red ribbon attached to it. Keeping her bangs out of her face were a plethora of barrettes. On her fingers were rings; one had the Venus symbol on it, another a plain band, a different one had a crescent moon and on one of her pinky fingers was one with a ruby cut into the shape of a heart.

Ami, in her turn, was wearing a pale blue, halter top, button down shirt with a flaring collar and a London blue, short, satiny skirt. The shirt was unbuttoned surprisingly low for her. Holding her hair back was a hairband that matched her skirt. On her ears were a pair of large pale blue earrings. On her feet were white, Roman-esque, but simplified, sandals. On one of her pinky fingers was a ring with a ruby cut into the shape of a heart.

The rings had been a gift from Usagi to everyone when she and Mamoru came back from their honeymoon. Everyone had one on one of their pinky fingers, including Luna and Artemis when in their Human forms. Their princess had explained that the rings represented their connection to eachother through their hearts and through fate and destiny. Even the prince and princess wore one, though Mamoru's – like Artemis' – was a garnet and set in a band in an attempt to make it look at least a little more masculine.

And yes, the rings had been **very** expensive, though no one had asked how much they had cost.

"Mina-chan, hand me your bottle, please."

Surprised, Minako handed it over to Ami, then watched, pleased, as the blue-haired woman cooled her water until the bottle looked almost frosted. She handed it back to the blond who gratefully unscrewed the top, stopped walking and took a long chug, ignoring the brainfreeze that it gave her. Ami called to Artemis to wait and the tomcat obligingly stopped, looking back over his damp shoulder, wisps of steam rising from his dense, white fur, green eyes inquiring. Seeing Minako he suddenly realized how thirsty he is.

Her thirst quenched, she pulled the bottle away from her mouth, wincing at the cramp that felt like it was inside her skull. Artemis watched as she lowered the bottle down to her bare waist. Noticing the way he was eyeballing her water bottle Minako glanced around to make sure that no one was within sight, then said, "I don't have a bowl with me, Artemis, so you'll have to go into your Human form if you want some water."

She had barely finished speaking when he was already turning around and shifting forms. It was a bit like watching a very well done werewolf transformation in a movie, but in reverse, with alot less theatrics, alot more grace... And he's a cat. By the time his large hand snatched the bottle out of her's he was fully Human in appearance, though the crescent moon on his forehead was still present. The same symbol hung from it's two points around his neck.

He had recently taken to actually changing his outfit every once in a while since he now had to take on his humanoid form fairly regularly – causing his white outfit to get rather dirty on more than one occasion – due to his job with the IRID, though it was still mostly white. At the moment he had on a white, long-sleeved, wide v-necked knitted shirt that showed off his toned chest. The knit was loose enough that you could easily see the pale skin underneath. As per usual he had on pale slacks – gray, not white for once – and matching dress shoes, though said shoes had soles that would normally be found on a pair of hikers. His butt-length hair was currently braided and was as soaked as his fur had been. Actually, so were his clothes... It was a good thing that, for once, he wasn't wearing **white** slacks since all of his summer pants were made of cotton.

He finished off the water and all-but pouted when he realized that there wasn't any left in the bottle. Minako rolled her eyes and took it back, screwing on the lid again. Out of all of them he was often the most adult, but sometimes...

"There'll be more at the temple Artemis." She informed him, "You might want to stay in this form though since you wont overheat as readily."

He thought about that for a second, then said, "I agree."

Turning back around he started walking again and the two girls followed. This time Ami struck up conversation about their work by asking about Minako and Artemis' latest mission.

* * *

><p>Minako was just telling Ami that it might be a good idea for her – Ami – to give the techs at the precinct a hand with the images if they keep having trouble when the three got to the bottom of the tall stairs leading up to the Hikiwa shrine. Artemis was no longer feeling quite as nauseous, but it was still persisting. Halfway up the stairs they found Usagi bent over, losing whatever she had eaten earlier as her husband held her amazingly long, now-white hair out of the way for her with one hand and rubbed her back with the other. Both girls grimaced in sympathy.<p>

The change in hair color had come about a year ago along with the golden crescent moon becoming permanently emblazoned on her brow, which she kept covered with foundation.

"At least now I know why I've been feeling sick." Minako commented.

Ami nodded in agreement. If Usagi wasn't careful all of her friends – even Naru and Motoki – started feeling her pregnancy. Mamoru had it the worst, but seemed to be dealing with it the best. As one might have guessed, just because they feel the nausea doesn't mean that they actually throw up. In fact that was a bit of problem at first; when Usagi had first started feeling sick everyone would all rush for the nearest safe thing to vomit into, but nothing would come up and, consequently, there was no relief and the feeling lasted longer for them than it did for their princess. They had all eventually figured out what was going on after about the fourth or fifth time this happened.

Artemis and the two Senshi mounted the stairs and climbed up to where their liege was – by then – groaning in misery.

"I hate this part of being pregnant." She understandably complained to all present.

"Yeah," Minako agreed wryly, wishing that she had another bottle of water, since it usually works to settle her stomach, "I think we all do."

"Minako! Be nice!" Artemis chided warningly, looking a bit cross even as Usagi straightened and gave her an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry Mina-chan, did I-?"

"For crying out loud! It was just a comment!" She exclaimed, throwing her hands up, one of them still holding the empty water bottle, "C'mon," She added, starting up the stairs again, "Lets just finish climbing these stairs so that we can have something to drink!"

Usagi stared after her near-twin, surprised, as her nausea finally started to abate. Sighing, Artemis explained.

"We got woken up at 4AM for an attack on a club and she hasn't gotten the chance eat since."

"Good thing Mako-chan brought so much food again." Ami commented.

Artemis' stomach chose that moment to inform them all that it needed filling as well. All of them stared at him, surprised.

"What?" He demanded, "I need to eat too!"

"Artemis... Did you shapeshift on an empty stomach?" Ami asked, worried.

If he had then it wouldn't matter how nauseated he was feeling; he'd still be hungry enough to eat twice the amount Usagi can pack away. Even if it meant that he'd just throw up, all, or most of it, a couple minutes later. On the other hand, if he didn't get at least a bit down he'd probably faint very soon.

"Er..." He answered.

"Artemis, you shouldn't do that!" Usagi chided, "You're going to make yourself pass out!"

Once again embarrassed, the tomcat turned back around and started up the stairs. When they crested them Grandpa Hino was talking to some giggling girls. Noticing them he cheerfully told the four of them that the others were around back. They thanked him and headed for where Rei had taken to setting things up for these summer get-togethers. When they came around the corner of the Senshi of Fire's home they found Minako was already eating what Makoto had brought, a half full water bottle next to her plate. Usagi and Mamoru were a bit stunned at what was laid out on the two picnic tables Rei had picked up last year when she got access to her trust fund; this was a lot of food even for the Senshi of Jupiter.

Artemis – being a cat, and, therefor, a carnivore – pounced on the cold meats, which, in Japan, can be a bit expensive. He took a seat next to Setsuna – Sailor Pluto – who was the only one of the Outer Senshi currently present. Makoto saw the married royals' expressions and explained.

"Artemis called pretty early this morning and said that he and Minako were going to need some food, so I a brought some extra, figuring he'd be in Human form by the time they got here."

"Good call." Usagi muttered, still stunned.

"No kidding." Mamoru agreed.

Ami walked past them to get some food as well, snapping the couple out of there reverie. The two followed her, making their way over to the tables and finding a place to sit. Usagi immediately started filling her stomach again; even 'morning sickness' couldn't curtail her appetite.

The next couple of hours were spent companionably together as they all caught up on eahcother's lives. Artemis mostly just listened to the conversation, having thrown up and still unable to eat until he was full due to continued nausea and a distaste of throwing up. After getting down what he could he now lay sprawled out on a blanket one of the girls had retrieved for him from inside. Under his head was a pillow and beside him was a concerned Luna – in a denim skirt, flats and a floral print tank-top, her hair down from it's usual style and up in a pony-tail – who was fanning him. Occasionally he added a comment or two to whatever Minako said; the young woman didn't always like what he had to add though.

It was while Usagi was telling everyone about her upcoming sonogram appointment in a couple of weeks that everything came to a screeching halt. The light all around them dimmed and a spiral of pink smoke formed in the air, catching all of there attention. Everyone stared, Artemis going up on his elbows to see more clearly.

All eight of them, upon seeing the pink smoke, had expected a cheerful Chibiusa to drop down out of it. Instead Eternal Sailor MiniMoon – her uniform nothing more than tatters, her hair half fallen out of her buns and her young body covered in bruises, cuts and burns – fell down onto the ground and didn't move. Luna-P bounced down next to her and rolled in a tight circle, it's eyes flashing red over and over.

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><p><strong>AN:** Well, I hope that wasn't too long for a first chapter. Please tell me what you think and suggestions are welcome!


	2. Chibiusa

**A/N:** Okay, her's the second chapter! Enjoy!

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><p>The still silence hung heavy in the air as they all stared in horrified shock at the pink-haired princess' battered form. Usagi's head spun as her heart hammered uncontrollably in her chest and her ears started ringing so loudly that she could no longer hear what the others were saying, if anything. It was only when her husband spoke that the tension in her snapped.<p>

"Chibiusa..." He whispered, horrified and still frozen in place.

"CHIBIUSA!" His wife shrieked.

She scrambled off of the bench as everyone else snapped out of it and did the same. As one they rushed over and swarmed around the little girl, surrounding her as her parents kneeled beside her. Usagi half picked her up, using one hand to support the girl's pink head. Mamoru took one of his daughter's hands, his own glowing golden and focused on healing her.

"Chibiusa! Chibiusa! Wake up sweety!" The princess begged desperately, "Oh, God," She moaned when she got no response, "Please wake up..."

As the cuts, bruises and burns faded like they had never existed – the state of her uniform now the only evidence of what had happened – she finally began to stir.

"Mama? Papa?" She mumbled, her eyes opening a crack to peer at everyone, "But... You all died..."

Everyone felt a chill creep into them at her words as they stared down at her, horrified all over again. Then, before anyone could react beyond that, Eternal Sailor MiniMoon sat bolt upright and screamed, "Sailor Chaos! She followed me through the Gates!" MiniMoon looked around frantically, "Where is she?"

"She's not here." Mamoru told her soothingly and his daughter slumped. The others all exchanged worried glances while Setsuna felt the color drain from her face; if Chaos was now in the Gates...

Moaning the young girl buried her face in her hands, drawing all back to her, then she suddenly sat straight again, her head snapping up.

"Where's Luna-P?" She asked frantically.

Makoto straightened and looked around and spotted it. Pointing to the cat-faced ball with it's antenna and red-flashing eyes, she said, "It's over there."

MiniMoon scrambled to her feet and the others moved out of the way so that she could get to Luna-P. Watching her, they figured that she wanted the toy for comfort, but instead of hugging it when she dropped to her knees bedside it she spoke to it.

"Stop moving! I'm going to release it!"

Everyone exchanged glances, then looked back to the princess of Crystal Tokyo just in time to see her press the mouth of the now-still Luna-P. In a puff of smoke as pink as the girl's hair Diana appeared, one paw held close to her tiny body as though it were injured. Her fur was a mess and singed and her eyes solid white.

"Princess..." The small, gray kitten started shakily, her tiny voice frightened, "Did we make it?"

"Yeah... **We** did."

"The others..." Diana sounded desperate, "They couldn't have..."

Chibiusa remained silent, her shoulders shaking as she clenched her hands in her lap helplessly. Her silence told her answer for her.

"No..." Diana whimpered, then screamed, "NO! They can't be! They can't be! We can't be the only survivors..." The little kitten trailed off as everything that had happened caught up with her and she passed out.

Artemis caught her before she even hit the ground and both he and Luna huddled around their kitten, tears silently held back.

Usagi wrapped her arms around Chibiusa's trembling form and held her, whispering in her ear, "It's okay to cry."

Those were the magic words that broke the dam, letting out the flood. A wail went up and Mamoru's arms were around her too. Both sets of parents held their daughters and wondered what could have possibly happened and how they could make it right for their child again. Eventually, Chibiusa cried herself into an exhausted silence while Diana remained passed out.

Grandpa Hino watched it all from a distance and felt tears pricking at his old eyes. He had known for a few years about all the girls and about his granddaughter before she ever transformed, so he wasn't surprised that MiniMoon had come to this place; he had been secretly watching them for years, proud beyond words of Rei. But today, watching MiniMoon and that little kitten was breaking the old man's heart. He couldn't imagine someone so cruel that they'd want to hurt these two kindhearted children. Taking a deep breath to steady himself and stepping fully around the corner he called out to the group.

"Hey!" All heads snapped over to see him, "Bring them this way; they should get out of the heat. Don't worry about the food, I'm sure Deimos and Phobos will keep an eye on it."

Rei opened her mouth to ask her grandfather a number of questions, but he held up a hand to forestall her.

"Wait until later for your questions Rei. First they need to be taken care of."

Realizing that he was right she reluctantly nodded in agreement. Wordlessly, Mamoru picked up his listless little girl and he, Usagi, Luna and Artemis started following the short, old man as he led them inside. The others trailed after them, their earlier cheer forgotten in their concern and fear for the two traumatized time travelers.

* * *

><p>Artemis set Diana down as gently as he could on a soft cushion in the guest bedroom while Grandpa Hino discreetly exited to go retrieve something... And someone. As soon as the tomcat's hands were out of the way Mamoru was there, his own hands glowing golden again as he started healing the bundle of singed gray fur. He was immediately met with resistance; it wasn't from Diana, but something else... Something familiar...<p>

"Chaos!" He all but snapped, angry and startling everyone, "These injuries..." Pressing his lips into a thine line he focused more.

He reminded himself that even if he's not as powerful as his wife he still has enough power to keep someone alive without their heart crystal for a protracted period. Instead of driving out the destructive darkness as his beloved no doubt would, he instead drew it out, coaxing and cajoling until it was free and clear of Diana, until, in the palm of his hand, a swirling ball of miasma contained in a shell of gold floated there. Everyone stared aghast.

"Wh-what is that?"

It was Luna who asked the question, staring, horrified that it came out of her daughter.

"I think it's miasma." Rei said, disgusted and just as horrified as Luna.

"What was it doing inside of Diana?" Ami wondered.

"Is she going to be okay now?" Makoto asked.

"I still have to heal her injuries."

"But still," Minako spoke up from beside her princess' future daughter, "Like Ami-chan said; what was it doing inside of Diana?"

"We were running from Chaos while we were in the fourth dimension." MiniMoon explained, her voice mostly flat, drawing all eyes to her.

Chibiusa was sitting on the guest bed, the blonds on either side of her as her transformation faded. She absently caught the front of her far to big dress before it fell off.

Her summer clothes consisted of a pink, off the shoulder summer dress with a red and white checkered skirt going down to her shins and a pair of red flats, one of which fell off. Around her dainty neck was a string of looped, multi-colored beads that looked like they might be gemstones and went down to her naval. On her ears were a pair of enormous, lacquered, daisy earrings with pink centers. Her hair was still a mess.

Mamoru forced his eyes away from his daughter and back onto the globe hovering over his palm. He pushed his power into the miasma until it dissipated into nothing.

"Tell us what happened," Mamoru told her, "Once were sure Diana is okay."

A quiet affirmative was Chibiusa's only answer as Mamoru dissipated the now-empty globe of power that he had been using to hold the miasma, then set both hands over the tiny, gray kitten. His hands glowing golden again, the former prince of Earth focused... And encountered another problem. He could see and feel Diana's injuries, but at the same time it was like they weren't actually there. Frowning, he focused harder. Still nothing... Mamoru added the tiniest drop more of power, not wanting to hurt Diana, trying to bolster his healing and reach to where Diana's injuries are.

The kitten cried out and he snatched his hands back.

All around him were voices demanding to know what had happened. He ignored them all as he thought it over, trying to understand how his daughter's adviser could be injured and not injured at the same time. Everyone fell silent when he turned and walked over to the quiet, pink-haired little girl and knelt down in front of her.

"Chibiusa, where did Diana get these injuries?"

The girl winced and said, "While we were in the fourth dimension."

"And yours?"

"...During the attack on Crystal Tokyo. Chaos seemed to be fighting someone else while we were trying to get to the past. Diana's injuries were from a stray blast that nearly hit us."

"I see... Did it have any effect on you?"

"It turned us both back into children. Diana caught the worst of it though."

The blue-haired genius in their group frowned and pulled out her upgraded mini computer from her pocket. She started running scans as Luna and Setsuna came over to help how they could. Mamoru turned to star at Luna and Artemis' daughter and inwardly winced in sympathy when he saw the white-haired man standing off to the side, looking lost helpless as he watched the unconscious kitten silently. He hadn't said even one word since the two companions had arrived and Mamoru found himself worrying about him. He knew from experience what it feels like to watch someone you love needing help and not being able to give it.

Grandpa Hino returned at that moment, the sound of the door sliding on it's track seeming too-loud in the quiet hush that had fallen over everyone. Everyone looked over in his direction, though Artemis barely spared him a glance. Without a word the old man walked over to Chibiusa and handed her a brush and a pair of hair elastics. Surprised, but grateful, she took the proffered items from his wrinkled old hands with a forced smile, set them in her lap and reached with trembling hands up to her messy mass of cotton-candy pink hair to try an undo what was left of her buns. Usagi's hands beat her too it as her mother's past self began deftly untangling the mess. Minako started working on the other bun before Chibiusa could try so she let her hands settled onto her lap as she let the two blonds work on her hair.

Grandpa Hino quietly exited to give the eight girls and two men some privacy.

"What happened?" Minako asked as gently as she could once she was certain that the old man was out of ear-shot.

The attention of every occupant in the room now on her Chibiusa shifted from small, scared, grieving child to the princess of Crystal Tokyo. Graceful and strong, she straightened her back, hardened her resolve and spun her tale.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Well, this chapter was shorter than the first one, but this was kind of where I had to end it. Next chapter will begin the tale of what happened, but not as a flashback; it'll include the details that Chibiusa missed.


	3. First Strike

Princess Lady Serenity – now a grown woman and in her formal pink gown – sat at a large, circular table that looked like it could have been made out of rose quartz. Around this table were several other rulers from different solar systems. Today they had all come at Lady Serenity's behest. Among those seated were Princess Kakyuu and her three Senshi; they, knowing the reason why she had called for this meeting, had been the first to answer the summons.

"Now that everyone is present I will explain the urgency I stressed in my messages to you. Not that long ago we had reason to believe that Chaos may be returning."

The other rulers tensed at these words. Those that had been in the Sailor Wars visibly paled.

"We did not wish to alarm anyone unduly so Neo Queen Serenity went with her Guardians to investigate. We have lost contact with them, but the last message we received confirmed our fears; Chaos has returned."

Seeing the fear and rising panic on everyone's faces Lady Serenity spoke again.

"**Do not play into it's plans**. Stay calm and if we work together we can defeat this enemy if it comes to it."

"'If it comes to it'?" The king of the Thanatos system demanded, "Don't be so naive! It **will** come to a fight."

He was old and had been old even during the Sailor Wars thousands of years ago. He had a neatly trimmed line of beard and mustache surrounding his stern mouth and following his jawline, a full head of ash-gray hair and flashing red eyes. His crown was made gnarled, spoked, brown wood with a single, red, faceted gem in the center. He was wearing silver colored, fitted armor made of a flexible alloy that allowed for full range of motion with only a little resistance from the material. This was the first time that he had set foot on Earth and the first time that he had finally agreed to so much as see the faces of anyone in Crystal Tokyo's royal family or of anyone connected to them.

He seemed perpetually angry.

"I agree." She answered, "But if we go in assuming the worst our hearts will waver and falter and then we will fall. Hope is the one thing that cannot be lost."

He was silent for several moments along with everyone else in the room as he thought over her words. His red eyes bored into her's contemplatively. Finally, he opened his mouth to reply when Helios burst into the conference room, breathless and looking frightened. All eyes were on him now, alternately alarmed or simply varying degrees of surprised.

"Ka..." He panted, "Chaos is here!"

Lady Serenity's blood froze in her veins for one moment as the implications of that – of what it meant about her mother and father – before she slammed a door on her fears and was on her feet shouting, "Pink Moon Crystal Power Make Up!"

A warm, welcome rush of power filled her to her core and then she was standing in her Eternal Sailor Mini Moon suit as a deafening boom filled the air. It was a sound that the Princess of Crystal Tokyo remembered far to well from the Dark Moon family's attack when she was still a child. It was the sound of her home under attack once more.

She didn't know why – no one did – but she had yet to inherit the full powers of Eternal Sailor Moon and as yet remained Eternal Sailor Mini Moon.

"Princess Lady Serenity!" The Thanatos king yelled, drawing her attention, "This palace is the safest place for the citizens – we need to evacuate them here!"

She was surprised by the assessment, but agreed and said, "You're right. My people will get them inside, but I need some of you to protect them enroute."

"Leave that to us." Princess Kakyuu pronounced firmly, already transformed as well.

There were choruses of similar sentiments from the other leaders. The fact of the matter is that the Sol system Senshi are the most powerful known. Truthfully, no one had any idea why, though theories abounded.

"Thank-you." Lady Serenity said gratefully, then turned serious again and dashed out the door, telling Helios to take care of bringing everyone inside as Diana – in cat form – followed, hot on her heels.

She never heard his answer.

Running through the halls her heels clacked loudly on the crystal floors as reverberating booms filled the air. Practice let her run at full tilt without slippingas people ran all around her, calling out, asking what was happening, but she didn't have enough time to answer. Thankfully, they were mostly organized by the time the princess burst through the northern doors. People were already rushing towards the entrance, guided by police officers, firefighters and even security guards and other civilians.

After the Black Moon family's attack it was standard for civil servents to be trained for these kinds of emergencies and are even sent off world to get experience in the matter. Sometimes they decided to stay off world, but most of the time they came back.

She jumped up and back-flipped onto one of the crystal spires to get out of the way of the oncoming near-mob, while Diana jumped up to a spot a bit lower down from her. Mini Moon scanned the sky for the enemy as the crowd rushed through the doors below her. She heard her people crying out to her with hope and prayed that she'd be able to live up to their expectations.

Finally spotting the knot of malignancy in the sky several miles off Mini Moon gathered her power around her and used it to float and then fly towards the enemy. Diana stayed above the palace entrance to watch for other enemies as her princess called out to her Senshi.

_'I've found the enemy! I'm moving north-east from the northern entrance.'_

_ 'We're on our way!'_ They called back.

It took less than a minute to close the distance and when she found herself twenty feet away she was stunned speechless for several moments. The enemy looked like a Senshi from the Sol system! Her colors were hard black and stark white; collar, boots, skirt, choker and tiara gem were all black; tiara was silver and the broach was a black and white spiral. Coming out from under her sailor collar was a white-lined black cape; her white shoulder guards looked like Sailor-V's and had scroll-work patterning on them; her boots were the same design as Sailor Saturn's before she gained her Eternal form; the rings on the tops of her gloves were missing and in their place were black ribbons tied in a bow just above her elbows, presumably holding up her gloves.

Her skin was almost as dark as Pluto's, while her dark eyes held an eerie, colorless quality to them. Rusty hair billowed out like a great banner as she turned her attention to the princess.

"Wh-" Mini Moon tried to get out, then steeled herself and shouted, "WHO ARE YOU?"

"Me?" The enemy asked innocently, then grinned sadistically, "I am your death. Call me Sailor Chaos."

Anger boiling up cold and hard Mini Moon launched into the offensive. Summoning her Moon Tier – inherited from her mother – she pointed it at Sailor Chaos and shouted, "Pink Moon Jubilation!"

A cascade of pink hearts and glittering light swirled around shimmering, fuchsia ribbons and slammed into Sailor Chaos sending her back several feet before she stopped her momentum, planted her energy-cloaked hands against the blast and pushed back. The force of Mini Moon's attack whipped up gale force winds, buffeting everyone and everything below them as she poured more power into it. Then she remembered once seeing Venus – while they were helping another world deal with an insurgency – use an attack that split into several streams. Mini Moon focused and where the ribbons met Chaos' hands they exploded out and around to slam into her enemy's back.

Caught off guard Sailor Chaos lost her concentration and got slammed by the rest of the attack from the front. That was when red-haired Sailor Vesta, green-haired Sailor Juno, blue-haired Sailor Pallas and pink-haired Sailor Ceres finally caught up with their princess.

"Girls," Mini Said, "Joint attack."

"Right!" They chorused.

As one they thrust their hands out and shouted, pouring as much power as they could into the attack, "PINK LADY'S FREEZING KISS!"

The attack slammed into the already ragged-looking Sailor Chaos without warning and for one moment it seemed that they had won. Then the attack vortexed and Sailor Chaos' voice carried out to them from the midst of that maelstrom.

"Abyssal Breath."

The vortex suddenly spat their attacks back out at them – but never hit. Diana was floating mid-air in her Human form, a barrier up between all of them and the onslaught. The gray-haired woman took the built up energy in the barrier and used it to fire off an attack at Sailor Chaos, who crossed her arms in front of her face to protect it while splitting as much of the attack off to either side as she could. Diana glared at the enemy, who glared back.

Lady Serenity's ad visor was wearing a one-shouldered, gray dress with a skirt that was short in the front and long in the back. Around her waist was a decorated, faux corset. On her feet were a pair of flats decorated on the toes with a mother-of-pearl, circular cut-outs. She had since learnt how to shapeshift so that her tail disappeared as it did with her parents.

"Well, you're certainly your parent's progeny, aren't you?" Sailor Chaos commented, then glanced up at the girls behind Diana, that cold smile appearing on her face again, "And you girls definitely are not to be taken lightly. Well, lets get this done then. Hounds of War."

Behind her appeared a portal leading into a blazing, painful light that they could not look directly at. It left Mini Moon briefly blind, but she could still hear when Sailor Chaos spoke again.

"Kill every living thing on the ground." The enemy ordered.

Mini Moon's blood froze in her veins as cold horror filled her.

"STOP THEM!" She screamed and sensed her Senshi leave to do as she had ordered.

Diana remained with her, though she didn't yet know it.

The Pink Moon Crystal warmed against her chest and her vision came back. Mini Moon wondered why the other four hadn't been too blinded to follow whatever Sailor Chaos had sent–

Terrified screams and agonized cries ripped through the air from down below to sink frozen claws into her gut, turning them into a hard, painful knot as her people's fear and pain was – for a brief moment – her own. She couldn't hear her own screams over all of theirs. Something slammed into her and sent her crashing into the ground. It was enough to nearly send her over the edge and into insanity, but somehow she managed to pull herself free of her people and close the door on their living hell – just in time to thrust both of her hands (except that one was pinned because Diana was on top of her, so it was actually only one hand) out in front her and throw up the strongest barrier that she could to hold off Sailor Chaos' attack. When it slammed into her she nearly passed out from the sudden pressure that pushed the ground out and away, forming a twenty-foot crater, with her and Diana in the center.

Her friend – impossibly – pushed herself up off of her despite the onslaught and then, eyes scrunched up in concentration, up onto her knees. Mini Moon stared in impressed shock as her friend tilted her head back, raised her hands above her head, palms up, and added her own power to the barrier. Harnessing the build up in the shield again Diana used it as an attack. This time Mini Moon sensed how she did this and added her own barrier's power to it. The combined blast was enough to send Sailor Chaos' attack back and even hit her hard enough to by them a minute to breath again.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Sorry to end it there, but I couldn't figure out how to continue from that point and you would have been waiting forever. Having a break between that last point and the next will make it easier to write the following part. Please R&R.


	4. The Soul

**A/N:** I am soooooo sorry that I made you wait for this! The chapters will probably get steadily longer from here onwards (the last one was so short because I couldn't figure out how to continue that chapter). Not that this chapter is terribly long.

Rockerangel89 – Yeah... Sorry this is so late...

* * *

><p>Mini Moon and Diana panted, sweat covering them from exertion while they tried to figure out what to do next. Sailor Chaos was still reeling up in the air, but they didn't know how much longer that would last; they needed to think of something – and fast. They didn't get the chance. Two eyeless, miasmic wolfhound/dog things with all to solid, blood-dripping teeth suddenly collided with them, sending the two women flying sideways with the creatures on top of them, their teeth tearing chunks out of the two. Or at least they would have been getting meat off the two if not for Mini Moon's Pink Moon Crystal protecting the princess and Diana's own fast reflexes throwing up a barrier around herself. Unfortunately there was no build up of power so she wasn't able to throw the creature off.

Mini Moon – who had been thrown further than Diana – saw this as she blasted the thing trying to eat her with a Pink Moon Heart Attack. Instead of it turning to dust the creature vortexed inward on itself until it was completely gone. Not dwelling on this Mini Moon directed her next attack in her friend's direction. It slammed into her assailant and the same thing happened again, but this time Diana was starting to get sucked into the vortex as well.

Panicked, all Mini Moon could think was, _Why would-?_

That was when she saw the way that light was getting sucked in as well It reminded her how the aspects of Chaos that the Senshi had dealt with always needed more energy and she realized what was happening.

"DIANA! DROP YOUR BARRIER – IT'S FEEDING THE VORTEX!"

In a testament to the woman's trust in her liege she did as ordered without hesitation. Diana was immediately released from the vortex's pull and it closed in on itself.

That was when Sailor Chaos finally recovered and got an idea that she believed would weaken her opponents, or, at the very least, disorient them, giving her the upper hand. Calling more Abyssal Hounds to keep them busy she formed an upright triangle with her hands, framed the two women with it, then flipped her hands upside down. Mini Moon and Diana immediately reverted to a pre-pubescent age.

It certainly distracted them and, for a brief moment, it looked as though the Hounds she had summoned would finish the two of them off for her. Then there was an explosion of pink light from the princess and all of the Hounds were sent back to the Abyss. For some reason the vortexes didn't suck in the energy the pink-haired child was still emitting.

"You're next!" Mini Moon pronounced, sprouting two, pure white wings.

If the deceleration hadn't come from such a high-pitched voice and out of such a tiny person Sailor Chaos might have been a bit worried.

Mini Moon took to the air as her adviser remained on the ground. Sailor Chaos noted with satisfaction that she had been blinded by the Abyss' light. She knew that contrary to what people think the Abyss is not a lightless void of agony. It's blindingly bright – literally, which is why people think that it's lightless – and teaming with life of all kinds. The Abyss is, in truth, the exact moment after the Big Bang, when everything and anything was possible.

Well, that's what she believes and it is partially right. What Sailor Chaos does not understand and never will is that this is not truly the Abyss – that's something else that came just before the blinding light. What she believes to be the Abyss is actually Unity, otherwise called enlightenment. From Unity comes Yin and Yang, Light and Darkness, Chaos and it's counterpart. As all life started in the Abyss, all possibility comes from Unity and through Unity she can call out to the Abyss, which is how the Hounds are present.

As for why Sailor Chaos isn't very 'enlightened' it's because she isn't entering into that space and wont even look for fear of becoming blind.

"CRYSTAL PRINCESS DREAM!" Sailor Mini Moon shouted, pouring as much power into the attack as she could and tapping into her bond with Helios.

He readily lended her his power, understanding that she would not risk pulling on it while he wasn't near unless she couldn't see any other choice. The blast of sparkling light nearly ripped Sailor Chaos apart, despite her best attempts to block and redirect. She needed to seal off this brat's power, or at least weaken her since turning her into a child obviously didn't work. Question is; **how**?

Ah, wait a minute, didn't the Princess just pull on someone else's power to bolster her own? Smirking Sailor Chaos sent several Hounds following the trail to take out whoever it was that Sailor Mini Moon had drawn on. Now to keep the little Princess occupied...

"Chaos Eclipse Obliteration!"

Sailor Chaos directed the seemingly formless blast at Sailor Mini Moon, who countered it, despite the previous drain on her power.

"Moon Princess Coronation!" An image of the white moon appeared behind the little princess along with an image of her mother, who wrapped her white, feathered wings around her daughter, protecting Mini Moon from the blast completely.

Well, that's annoying.

_Need to negate that..._ Sailor Chaos thought.

"Chaos Shattering!"

The image of the White Moon, Neo Queen Serenity and her wings turned to glass and then shattered into tiny fragments. Sailor Chaos smiled coldly at Mini Moon, who prepared to attack again – only to stop before she ever gave voice to it. She floated there, frozen, a look bordering on madness written across her face and Sailor Chaos realized that the Hounds must have found the person she had been drawing on.

She was right. The Hounds had, indeed, found Helios – and killed him. Mini Moon sensed this as a ripping away and negation of his presence in her soul. She wanted to howl in agony, but Sailor Chaos is right in front of her and if she isn't stopped everyone is dead. She slammed the mental and emotional door on Helios' death, momentarily allowing her to forget. It was the same thing her mother had done in the past when she saw Sailor Galaxia kill Mamoru.

Not thinking straight, despite the fact that she had completely blocked out what had just happened to her fiance, Mini Moon launched herself at Sailor Chaos, surprising the darkly hued woman.

Down on the ground Diana had sensed what had happened to Helios as well and grieved for her liege and the priest who had been her friend. She had to think of something to calm Mini Moon down again though; she isn't in her right mind at the moment.

The gap between Mini Moon and Sailor Chaos was closed with Mini Moon feinting a palm strike to Sailor Chaos' face. When the woman went to deflect the blow the princess got her with a roundhouse kick to the side that sent her flying. Sailor Chaos did a backflip and landed on top of a skyscraper, completely stunned; everyone knows that the Sol System Senshi rely heavily on their powers in a fight, so there is no possible way that they could have any real ability in hand-to-hand since training can only get you so far. Quite frankly Sailor Mini Moon should not have been able to fight like this in hand-to-hand. Or, at least, not against someone with as much experience in it as Sailor Chaos. It's probably just a fluke.

Mini Moon was not letting up and was already charging in again.

Below them Diana was still wracking her brain trying to think of how she could calm Mini Moon down, but nothing would come to her. This might have been due to the fact that a pack of Hounds had found her and she was currently fighting them off. As one lunged at her she sensed it and kicked it in the head. Her race's naturally tremendous strength crushed it's skull. Another one came at her from a different angle and she kicked up. Another came and she locked her shins around the neck of the one she had just kicked, planted her hands on the ground and flipped the hound over her to crash into the other hound. Untangling her legs she back-flipped and landed on yet another Hound with crushing force. From there she planted her hands on the top of that Hound's head and kicked the next one lunging at her from behind. She blasted the one directly under her hands, pushing herself away and to the side as she did so, landing like the cat she is as both creatures vortexed. Sensing yet another Hound coming at her she crouched lower at the last second and brought her elbow up, crushing it's throat. Scrambling away from the vortex she found three more lunging at her.

Before she could react the Thanatos king appeared, slamming his feet down on the middle Hound's head, arms extended to either side as he blasted the other two with blue-white light that Diana could sense, but not see. She recognized the feel of it as ki, not magic, and wondered where all that power had come from; she had sensed almost nothing from him since his arrival and had figured that he has little to no power, unlike most monarchs. Apparently she had been wrong because now he blazed like a sun to her.

"Lady Diana." He greeted, "Everyone that we could get into the safety of the palace is there... The rest are dead – what happened to your eyes?"

She told him about Sailor Chaos' Abyssal Hounds and the light.

"...Understood." Was all he said, then turned his gaze up to watch Mini Moon and Sailor Chaos continue duking it out.

Up on top of the building Sailor Chaos was on the offensive now with kicks, driving Mini Moon back as she jumped, dodged and deflected where she could. Doing this is alot harder in a child's form. The princess wasn't terribly surprised when she suddenly found herself pined against a wall by a hand around her dainty throat as her feet dangled high off of the ground.

In Sailor Chaos' free hand was an orb of light that seemed to dim everything around it.

"Chaos Flash." She said and her hand moved forward to deliver the blow, the energy in her hand sending their hair flying.

Everything seemed to stop and Mini Moon's soul was taken to another place and time.

* * *

><p><em>All around her were wild flowers of violet, yellow and pink. A blue, cloudless sky hung over her head and in the distance she could make out trees. Spinning around, trying to figure out where it was that she suddenly found herself, Mini Moon came to be facing what she instinctively recognized as her grandmother's palace – the Silver Millennium. Which meant that she had somehow been brought to the moon.<em>

_ How? Why?_

_ "Usagi."_

_ At the sound of her mother's voice she whirled around. Fabric swished against her shins and calves and she looked down in surprise. Gone was her child's body; she was now an adult again. Her uniform was also gone and in it's place was the formal gown that she had been wearing at the meeting. Perched on the ends of her shoulders were pastel pink, lace bands. The lace continued down from her shoulders to edge the top of her short, soft bodice. Just below her breasts was a star-flare of intricate, pearl-studded lacework that wrapped around, following the line of the bodice to the inverted V-point that stopped on her mid-back. At that point where the lace ended was bow with long tails hanging down almost to the floor. On the front of the dress and starting from the bottom most point of the lacework and continuing at even intervals all the way around were trailers of lace going all the way to the hemline of the dress. Stitched into the lacework trailers until halfway down the length of the skirt were more pearls._

_ Her engagement ring winked up at her. The clear jewel shined like a star and she felt a deep sadness well up inside of her. For the moment she couldn't remember that Helios was dead and so wondered why looking at the ring made her feel so miserable. Tearing her eyes away from the symbol of her and Helios' coming commitment to each other she looked up at her mother. _

_ Standing next to Neo Queen Serenity was the previous Queen Serenity in her mermaid-style dress. Truthfully, the princess had never met someone besides her grandmother that could actually pull that particular style of dress off properly. The two women standing before her were beautiful, graceful and elegant; everything she had always aspired to be as well. And both of them were now dead. Lady Serenity could only hope that she would be able to live up to her linage._

_ "I'm not here physically, am I?" The current Moon Princess stated more than she asked._

_ The gem on her ring didn't glow unless she was in some kind of dreamscape._

_ "No." Her mother affirmed._

_ "You're dead aren't you?" Lady Serenity asked, trying not to let her voice waver; she already knew the answer, but she needed to ask anyway._

_ Somewhere in the background of her mind she had believed that her mother would always be there, protecting everyone. Was this how she had felt when Queen Beryl had attacked so long ago?_

_ "Yes, but I have something very important to give you."_

_ "What?" She prompted in a strained voice._

_ "This." Her mother answered, holding out a softly glowing, white light in both hands._

_ "What is it?" Lady Serenity asked, already reaching for it._

_ "A power. A gift from my mother to you."_

_ Surprised, Lady Serenity turned her ruby eyes to her alien grandmother, who smiled back silently, her pale blue eyes fathomless. The much younger princess was suddenly reminded that this woman was ancient and had come from another galaxy a very long time ago for reasons long since lost._

_ "Thank-you." She said honestly to the woman._

_ "Use it wisely Lady Serenity."_

_ It was the first time that she had ever heard Queen Serenity's voice so she should have been startled, but this is a dreamscape and it doesn't work the same way waking reality does. If anything it is far more truthful._

_ Lady Serenity nodded._

_ "When you return," Her grandmother went on, "Focus the power and say these words."_

* * *

><p>Her grandmother's voice still echoing in her mind Mini Moon did as she had been instructed, focusing the new power that she had been given and shouting the words that she had been told too just seconds before Sailor Chaos would have killed her.<p>

"Selene White Moon Refraction!"

For Sailor Chaos everything seemed to slow down as her attack and arm plunged into faceted space. She realized what was happening just in time to see her attack erupt, bounce around in multiple directions at once and then shoot out to all slam into her x10.

The way that the Selene White Moon Refraction works is that once an attack enters it the different facets create more versions of it ('reflections'), each as powerful as the original. The duplicates then create more duplicates and so on until they all shoot back out and hit the attacker. It was a power born out of Queen Serenity's wish to protect her people when she had still been a Sailor Senshi. All of this Sailor Chaos knew intimately; the woman had been her bane. The aspects of Chaos that her daughter had dealt with as Sailor Moon hadn't truly been interested in the Crystal, well... At least not entirely for the reasons that everyone assumed. No... Mostly it had been revenge. Chaos wanted to tear apart Queen Serenity's dynasty and destroy everything that she cares about. The desire for the Crystal itself came from the fact that, once upon a time it had been a part of Chaos – and then Queen Serenity's ancestors ripped it away, called it holy and started using it to try and destroy Chaos by creating the first Sailor Senshi.

So yes, Chaos wanted the Crystal, it's life force and everything that had been good about itself. And as Sailor Chaos – the conduit for that ancient being – fell over the side of the skyscraper burnt, bruised and bleeding she wondered how it was that the White Moon Queen had been able to pass on her powers and, eyes squeezed shut, prayed to Chaos.

_'Merged Sailor Crystals.'_ Was the answer that she received even as she was partially healed.

Her eyes snapped open, she flipped and – with a burst of power – not only stopped her momentum, but also sent herself rocketing back up to land on the skyscraper roof where she found Mini Moon trying to breath through a bruised larynx. The pink haired girl looked up in alarm at Sailor Chaos' partially healed form, a hand covering her delicate throat, blood-shot, ruby eyes wide.

Although Sailor Mini Moon's form had only grown a little over a foot and she was still a fair bit shorter than when Sailor Chaos had first started fighting her ruffly fifteen minutes ago the girl now had a noticeable chest. For one brief moment Sailor Chaos wondered when it was that the girl had started puberty.

_Rather precocious, isn't she?_

She shoved the thought aside ruffly and focused.

"CHAOS LOCK!"

The princess' entire body seized up with a jerk and her already wide eyes went even wider as she felt that new power she had been given by her grandmother get locked away somewhere inside of her.

"What the hell is wrong with you people?" Sailor Chaos demanded.

Now that the deed was done Sailor Chaos let the shock set in. Merging two Sailor Crystals was, to her mind, a horrific thing to do. Understandable when you consider this; when a Starseed – the very essence of a person, their 'soul' – is bright enough it can become the conduit of a deity and/or celestial body. At that point the Starseed is transformed into a Sailor Crystal and with the right kind of device the power of the deity/celestial body can be fully tapped, creating a Sailor Senshi. Before Queen Serenity's ancestors had taken all that is good from Chaos and compressed it into the form of the Phantom Crystal there had been Sailor Crystals and Starseeds.

Mini Moon had no time to answer Sailor Chaos' demand because at that moment the Thanatos king appeared floating in the air and the other woman immediately jumped away. Catching his form on her peripheral the pink-haired princess chanced a slight glance in his direction and spied, tucked under one arm, Diana's unconscious form.

"What happened to Diana?" Mini Moon demanded, her voice rough from the bruising.

The king frowned down at her before answering.

"She used to much of her power and collapsed." He landed on the rooftop beside Mini Moon and gently placed the adviser right by her, "You can't fight with your throat like that. Protect your friend I will deal with this from here... And don't worry; you're people are secured."

Mini Moon was about to protest when he removed his crown, dropping it carelessly on the rooftop and launched himself at Sailor Chaos. As they exchanged blows and blasts the princess was reminded of the fact that the Thanatos system was one of the few that hadn't fallen to Sailor Galaxia when she had been under the sway of Chaos.

Watching the king fight as she picked up Diana's form and cradled her friend close Mini Moon was fairly certain that she now knew why. Knowing that he was right – that she can't fight with her throat in it's current condition – she prayed that he would be able to stop Sailor Chaos. Within her chest the Crystal pulsed in time with her heart, already working to heal her and struggling against the Lock Chaos had placed on the now-adolescent Senshi.


	5. Interlude

**A/N: **Okay, the next chapter should hopefully be out faster than the last one. I am working on the outline for this story and I need some help from you guys. There are going to be other Senshi (all from Earth) appearing in later chapters, which could delay the next chapter if I don't get some help. These other Senshi are integral to the plot, though they will not be taking center stage, except where needed. I have a list of Sailor Senshi names, but no civilian identities for them, which is where I need your help; I need names for them. If you want to add in anything besides a name (or multiple names) feel free to do so. Oh, and these Senshi are going to be from all over the world so the names don't all have to be Japanese. I'd normally be brainstorming this myself, but I'm working on a novel, the outline for two other (non-fanfics) stories, plus a Chrono Crusade fanfic and this one. As a result I'm a bit out of ideas for names at the moment and I'm sick of looking them up... Which is very strange for me because I love to find out the meanings of names (I find it oddly fascinating).

For those of you who read the original A/N that was here I changed it because I realized that I wasn't being clear and giving the wrong impression at the same time. That said, enjoy the chapter!

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><p>Back in the present, Chibiusa was leaning against Usagi, fast asleep. Reliving everything had left the poor princess too exhausted to continue for the time being, but what she has told them so far was left them all speechless. Gently, her mother's past self and Mamoru eased her down onto the bed. Usagi stood up and Minako leaned forward where she was sitting on the floor with her back against the bed while Mamoru pulled the covers out from under the pink-haired girl and laid them over Chibiusa. Everyone one was silent, sitting around the guest bedroom, trying to figure out how to respond to the revelation that everything they have worked for will come to nought. Usagi sat back down on the bed, while Minako leaned back again, adjusting a couple of times to get comfortable.<p>

Lounging thoughtfully in a been-bag chair that her grandfather had brought in for her was Rei. In this sweltering heat she was wearing a pair of white shorts and a light-red tank-top, with her hair in a braid. Since they were indoors she - along with all the others - was bare-foot. Mamoru sat back down on the floor, leaning against the three-drawer dresser, not bothering to try and get more comfortable. He was wearing a green T-shirt and light slacks. Luna and Artemis were both sitting cross-legged on either side of Diana's unconscious form. Ami, for her part, was currently the only one sitting at the small, low, wooden table, her legs - due to her skirt - tucked under her seiza style; her legs folded directly under her. In front of the blue-haired woman was the laptop that she had brought earlier. Thanks to Luna and Artemis' efforts it could directly link to both the Eternity Main system and the Control Centre. At the moment she was inputting everything Chibiusa had told them thus far and was almost done.

Setsuna took a deep breath a stood.

"I need to inform the others about this."

Five sets of blue eyes - Usagi's, Mamoru's, Minako's, Ami's and Luna's - a set of green and a pair of dark lavender all turned to look up at her. Artemis continued staring at his unconscious kitten. Despite that he nodded in time with everyone else, acknowledging what the eldest Senshi had just said. Minako seemed to come out of her daze a bit and spoke up.

"Yeah, that's probably best. How long will it take them to get here?"

"About two days."

Minako nodded. Before she could say anything else Artemis spoke.

"Setsuna-san... Have you seen this possible timeline?"

"Yes."

"Should we be preparing for war?"

"...Yes."

Silence reigned as they all digested this. Setsuna quietly left to contact the Outer Senshi and Rei debated whether or not to go meditate until Chibiusa woke up, but decided to wait instead; the Senshi of Fire has been known to become so focused while meditating that it's impossible to get her attention. In all likelihood, if she didn't stop meditating before Chibiusa woke up she would probably miss whatever the princess had to say next on what had happened. Before anyone else could decide to do anything a very unexpected person slid the shoji open and stepped in; Jadeite, with a large bag slung over one shoulder and smartly dressed in a pressed, blue button down - neatly tucked in with only the top button undone - and brown slacks.

"Jadeite-kun?" Usagi asked, surprised at his sudden appearance.

This time even Artemis turned to look, everyone wide-eyed, though Usagi and Mamoru for different reasons.

The royal couple tensed, both ready to stop Rei from roasting him when her eyes narrowed in their former enemy. But their friend pleasantly surprised all of them when she relaxed with a sigh and said, "I don't sense any evil from him. I checked when I spotted him and the others at the Prince and Princess' wedding too." Her dark eyes pinned the elder Usagi and she added, "Though I would like to know if their claim that you resurrected them is true."

"I couldn't just leave them as stones! And they didn't want us to-"

"Relax." Rei said with a roll of her eyes, "I'm not judging; I can guess why we weren't told. Besides," She added with a wince that the other girl's shared a moment later, "I'm not in any position **to** judge after what happened with Galaxia."

"She's got a good point their." Minako noted wryly, "In any case," She added, leaning forward to look around Usagi's knees and directing her attention at Jadeite, "What brings you here?"

"Hino-san's grandfather asked me to come look at Lady Diana."

"Why did he ask you to do that?" Artemis asked, trying not to sound hostile, but still sounding suspicious.

"Probably because I'm an inter-racial doctor." He answered clamly

Everyone stared at him in surprise, including Mamoru. A bit flustered by the reaction Jadeite said, "Uh, Prince... I was the one who taught you how to heal before..." He trailed off with a grimace.

The rest of that sentence would have been 'Queen Beryl's attack on the Silver Millennium.', but it remained unsaid. Artemis decided to break the tension.

"See what you can do about Diana." The white-haired and green-eyed father said, gesturing to his daughter, tension still coiled tightly in him.

Jadeite gave a start and walked over, kneeling down in front of the small, grey kitten. Ami, having finished her note-taking, fished out of her white purse her mini computer and went over to where Jadeite was to let him see the readings she had taken earlier after the miasma had been removed. The two of them worked together for the next few hours until there was nothing more that they, or anyone, could do. By then it was night out and futons were brought into the guest room, while the shoji on one side of the room was removed so that everyone could fit. Jadeite ended up staying with everyone else and was allowed to go over Ami's notes, much to his surprise. In his case he was staying because, although Diana was currently stable, he was still worried. So were the others, so none of them had a problem with his presence, though he was decidedly uncomfortable sleeping in the same room as six grown women.

More than a few of the girls were contemplating teasing him later, but, for now would refraining from doing so.

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><p><strong>AN**: I apologize if the above is not as well written as it could have been; this was written on the fly online to fill in some gaps. I did edit it, but I'm on a time crunch and can't save it so it's probably not as well written as it could be. Feel free to point out any errors - I will fix them.

Fun Fact: In the mangaka's notes for Sailor Moon she described Jadeite as being a very serious person. Which is why I did him the way I did. Also, I just wanted to portray him in a way that was different from what everyone else does rather than rehashing the same idea.

By the way; which of the generals do you want to show up next? I've set up a poll for voting on that, but you can also just message me or tell me in a review.

P.S. The next chapter **will** be longer. Promise. And please - names! I would really, really appreciate it (I'll give credit at the beginning of the chapter when I use the name).


	6. Morning Rutine

**A/N:** For those of you who don't know a futon, in the contest of the story is "A Japanese quilted mattress rolled out on the floor for use as a bed.".

Enjoy the chapter and thank-you to everyone who is still reading this (by the way, sorry the chapter is so short; I'm still working on my novel). And especially thank-you too Destrona for your input. I did try to find a beta, but... Nadda. I was bit disappointed. If you're still reading this and happen to know a beta I could ask I would appreciate if you could point me in their direction.

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><p>Jadeite woke up with his head and thoughts about as clear as a pillow-muffled whisper and blearily looked around, propping himself up on his elbows as he did so. Taking stock of where he was he felt more than a little embarrassed to be sleeping in the same room as several women, but was somewhat mollified by the presence of two other men besides himself. It helped that one of them was his Prince, though it <strong>didn't<strong> help that he still had no idea who the one with the white and green eyes hair is.

After trying – unsuccessfully – three times to gather his thoughts Jadeite decided that he needed coffee and attempted to get up from the futon he was lying on. Unfortunately, he forgot to take the sheet covering him – because it was way to hot for blankets – off first and somehow got tangled up instead. Now partway off of the futon he turned a bewildered look to his legs and stared for several seconds before reaching down and trying to unwrap them from the sheet.

He did not get very far in this endeavor. The scowl and frown on his face got increasingly dark and he started to growl incoherently at the offending piece of fabric constricting his legs.

"Hold on, let me help you." A feminine voice said just before a pair of pale, delicate hands took hold of the sheets and he found a head covered in long, straight, glossy black hair come into his line of sight.

Jadeite blushed lightly and let his hands be shooed away. It took a few minutes and a couple of rolls for his part, but they got him free. By then he was awake enough to actually think a bit and remembered to thank her.

"You're welcome." Was Rei's amused answer.

She had heard Mamoru mention a couple of times that Jadeite wasn't a morning person and had always figured that he meant that Jadeite was cranky when he first woke up. As such that was what she had been prepared for. So imagine her surprise to wake up to the sight of him trying – while still bleary-eyed with sleep – to get a sheet unwrapped from his legs and only succeeding in making it worse. She had almost laughed, but somehow managed to contain it.

"Do you drink coffee?" She asked.

He nodded wordlessly.

Looking over at the sleeping forms of the others in the room Rei said, "Good. I'm going to need some help brewing enough..." Standing up her usual slightly haughty demeanor returned and, with an arched eyebrow and looking down at him – literally – she said, "Well? Get up. We've got coffee to make."

Jadeite levered himself upright, not having enough of a working brain yet to protest being ordered about.

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><p>About forty minutes later Jadeite was fully awake, still not talkative for now and standing in the hallway outside of the room holding a tray laden with cups and a carafe as Rei slid open the shoji. About four of the room's occupants had woken up around five minutes ago – Mamoru, Artemis, Luna and Ami – and had offered to help with making coffee and tea, but the two had only been waiting for the last pot to brew, so the others had decided to set about waking the others up. Everyone had gone to sleep in their clothes so, despite their efforts to straighten themselves out, they all looked somewhat rumpled.<p>

Near the center of the room was the table, on which the other carafes sat, waiting. Everyone except Usagi and Chibiusa, who was cuddling with her mother as they slept, were awake and sitting around the table in varying degrees wakefulness. Even Diana was cradled in her mother's lap – Luna having been able to convince Artemis that their kitten needed her mother just as much as her father. Stepping into the room Jadeite walked over to the waiting table and set the tray down as Rei closed the door behind him.

As he stepped away Jadeite was a bit surprised by how quickly everyone except Mamoru and Luna pounced on the cups and started pouring. Turning to Rei, who was wisely sitting away from the others, he asked, "Are they usually like this?"

"Only first thing in the morning. Thankfully."

"Guys," Mamoru called to the group as he poured his coffee, "Remember to leave some Oolong for Usako."

"Oolong?" A sleepy, candy voice mumbled.

Every set of working eyes – Diana turned her head in the general direction of her mistress and swiveled her ears towards Chibiusa – turned to look at the drowsy-eyed, pink haired princess from the future.

"Would you like some?" Ami asked quietly, breaking the silence.

"Yes please." Chibiusa answered as she sat up.

Her clothes had been replaced with light pajamas the other night by Usagi and Mamoru, with some help from Luna. Chibiusa had only stirred once, but only for a couple of seconds.

Mamoru set his cup of coffee down and grabbed one for Chibiusa and, picking up a tea carafe, poured her a cup of Oolong. Chibiusa got off of the bed, her mother's arms falling limply away. Despite the fact that Usagi is currently pregnant with Chibiusa's past self there is no paradox from the future princess being near her mother simply because the Crystal and Usagi's body was protecting them. Walking the few paces to the table the others made room for the pink-haired woman-child next to Mamoru and she sat down. She reached for her cup of tea.

"Careful," Mamoru told her as he handed it over, "It's hot."

She nodded, setting it down before she scalded her fingers. Taking the mug by the handle she picked it up again, blew on the liquid a few times to cool it and took a sip. A few moments of silence stretched, no one willing to say anything just yet. No one was even sure **what** to say. The little princess set her cup down.

"We should wake her up." Chibiusa announced, "I just want to get this over with."

"Perhaps you should wait for everyone to be fully awake first so that you don't have to repeat any of it later."

The pink-haired girl gave a start at the sound of Jadeite's voice. Her head swiveled around to blink at the sandy-golden haired man in surprise. She had no idea who he is. Turning to look up at her father's past self she asked, "Mamo-chan, who is he?"

"Uhh, well he's..."

Still standing near the door.

"Jadeite, will you sit down?" The Earth Prince snapped at him, making the other man jump.

"My apologies Prince," He answered, bowing from the waist with his left hand on his right shoulder, "But I think I would rather stand for the moment."

"Oh c'mon! It's not like we're gonna bit you!" Minako pointed out.

"I mean no offense–" He stopped short at the annoyed looks that the girls, Mamoru and Artemis were all giving him.

"Is he **always** like this?" Chibiusa asked dryly, the air of someone much older about her.

"As I recall he's uncomfortable around women in any kind of non-professional setting."

All of the girls – except Diana – and Artemis turned surprised gazes on him. A faint blush crept onto his cheeks and he looked away. Minako took a sip of her tea, set the mug on the table and stared at the dregs for a moment before picking up the carafe to pour herself another cup and coming to a decision.

Speaking up she said, "Mako-chan, if you'd please get him to sit down."

"Fine." The woman in question sighed and – setting her cup of coffee down – started getting up.

"N-no, that's fine! I'll find a place to sit!"

As he looked around frantically the others decided to be nice and shifted around until there was enough room for him to sit next to Mamoru. Gratefully and with a thank-you – though he was still very obviously uncomfortable – he took the silently offered seat. Minako silently thanked Kunzite for that little piece of advise that he had given her in another lifetime as she suppressed the laughter threatening to bubble up from his reaction.

"I'm going to go get my laptop." Ami told the group, "I'll be right back."

Due to concern for her laptop getting wrecked with so many people sleeping in one room she had stowed it in Rei's for safety. It only took her a couple of minutes to retrieve it and be back, sitting at the table again. The others moved stuff out of the way while Makoto plugged in the laptop. Ami set it down on the cleared space.

Mamoru started going about waking up is wife, while his daughter considered what she should leave out of her retelling.

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><p><strong>AN****:** Well, hopefully I still have your guys' interest in where this story is going. I've been working on my novel, which is why the long wait for an update. Don't worry; it's better written than this. As always, please review! Even if it's only to let me know that you're still reading this.


	7. Beat Down

**A/N:** Kuran Yuki, this update is for you. Thank-you very much for your Faves, Alerts and your comment; it motivated me to actually finish this chapter. I hope that you enjoy it.

By the way, sorry it's not that long...

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><p>The king of Thanatos knew better than to try using ki against someone who uses magic; it's like throwing a ball of fire at water. The water wins unless there is absurdly more fire than water. As such the king fought with his fists, feet and everything but his ki. Still, Sailor Chaos was able to hold her own against him, though she had to use telekinetic shields to block his blows and it was a strain. His race's homeworld has ten times Earth's gravity making him physically much stronger than anyone else currently on the planet. As for why he could move around normally... His people also have super-Humanly fine motor control. As a result, though, when he hits, he hits <strong>hard<strong>.

Sailor Chaos reeled under the onslaught, blood crawling down her face from her eyes, nose and mouth from the strain and the shockwaves crashing through her shields.

He wondered if she was a first generation Senshi.

She wondered if he was a monster.

Finally the Thanatos king relented and she dropped her shields, to exhausted to maintain them when they aren't immediately needed. He took advantage of this and put on a burst of speed that made him all but disappear to the eyes of Sailor Chaos and Mini Moon. The pink-haired Princess was watching from the skyscraper, her mask-goggles – for once – in place on her face and magnifying things so that she could see what was going on.

Sailor Chaos' powers and the super fast healing that they grant were the only reasons that she survived when the Thanatos king's open palm struck her broach and sent her flying. The shockwave that went through her should have pulped her heart. As it was every bone in her chest was broken on contact and the rest in her body were broken and then shattered as she went through several solid objects and then skipped like a stone on water across the pavement before coming to a halt in a broken and mangled heap. Sailor Chaos' uniform had turned to silky black ribbons hanging from her broach by then.

Her body shrieked in agony, but she couldn't give voice to any of it. Vaguely, through the fog of pain, she wondered why the Thanatos king wasn't killing her.

The answer to that question is that when he struck her broach, rather than breaking, it protected itself and hit him with a backlash and he was now laying on the ground in as much pain as her. His pain, though, had nothing to do with any broken bones – which he didn't have – and everything to do with the havoc crawling through his nerves. He was effectively out of commission until further notice.

Chaos stepped in again and healed it's Senshi. She screamed as soon as her body allowed her too, but it died quickly and she sent a fervent thank-you to Chaos as she picked herself up from the rubble that had stopped her momentum. Glancing around she found the Princess with her still-unconscious adviser held in her arms. Both were still up on the skyscraper.

* * *

><p>Mini Moon only had time to stare in horrified realization as Sailor Chaos floated above her and said, "Chaos Annihilation!"<p>

The blast hit faster than Mini Moon could blink and a scream erupted from her and Diana as the building they were on was destroyed. It felt like they were being ripped apart one atom at a time. Then they were both swallowed into darkness and knew nothing more...

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><p>Until the princess woke buried in rubble, her uniform rendered to fuchsia ribbons hanging from her broach and Diana turned back into a kitten. The Earth-born Maoian was only half conscious. Mini Moon looked around dazedly, wondering where she was. When her and Diana's situation finally filtered in Mini Moon instead started wondering how to get them out. The rubble abruptly started moving, alarming the Princess out of her daze. The alarm passed though – turning to shock – when the King of Thanatos lifted up most of the rubble above her head and tossed it aside.<p>

"Are you alright Princess?" He asked, offering a hand to help her climb free and completely unfazed by her nearly nude and adolescent body.

She nodded mutely, too stunned to talk, and picked up Diana as carefully as she could. Her adviser let out a little whimper that made Mini Moon cringe. When she was sure that she wasn't going to drop her best friend the Sailor Senshi took the offered hand and he pulled her free. When the Princess looked around she saw nothing but destruction everywhere. Her delicate hand flew to cover her mouth as tears streamed down her face and her body trembled.

The Thanatos king removed his hand from her's and placed it on her small shoulder. With his free hand he made a sweeping gesture to the ruins surrounding them, saying as he did so, "All of this can be rebuilt." His hand fell to his side as he turned his gaze on her, while the other on her shoulder gave a minute squeeze as he added, "But only with a strong leader to take them forward."

Mini Moon pulled her hand away from her mouth and took ten calming breaths, then nodded, her eyes clear of tears and the tracks already drying on her face.

_"Small Lady."_

At the sound of Helios' voice behind her Mini Moon's heart stuttered in her chest and she wondered why. The adolescent-looking Princess turned to face him. He looked translucent and she couldn't comprehend the reason why he would; he hadn't been in Elysian when the attack came and she knew him well enough to know that he wouldn't have run away. So why?

A door started to slowly creak open in her mind as she walked over to him.

"Helios...?" She asked tremulously.

_"Here."_ He said as gently as he could, holding out his hand to show a fully materiel Time Key in his palm, _"Take this; it's from Pluto. Go back and change what happened here."_

"Go back..." She mumbled, the door in her mind creaking further open as she took the key from his hand, her fingers passing through his palm, "Change..." The door came wide open, "You died..." She stated in a horrified whisper, tears beginning to fall again, "You... You..."

Sailor Chaos appeared at that moment. Mini Moon didn't notice, even as the Thanatos king reflexively threw a ball of glowing white-gold ki at her. The rust-haired Senshi swatted it aside like it was nothing and threw her attack at Mini Moon. The Princess chose that moment to let loose an ear-splitting scream, voicing her agony over her lost love, sending up a golden moonbeam that was so bright it seemed to turn day to night.

The Thanatos king felt his transformation start pounding in time with his heartbeat as Sailor Chaos' attack approached. Power surged through the Time Key everything froze.

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><p>Chibiusa stopped her tale there as the tears flowed uncontrollably and both of her parents' past selves wrapped their arms around her. The others all watched sadly. Jadeite came to a decision then and got up, walking over to where Ami sat. To everyone's surprise he bent over and said something quietly into her ear.<p>

"Of course." She answered and got up.

Jadeite sat himself where she had been and she helped him navigate the interface on her computer to send the text file she had created of Chibiusa's story thus far. He added a note asking the other generals to come to Rei's temple ASAP.

"How long will it take," She asked as Jadeite got up to give her her seat back, "Before they see it?"

"Not long." He answered, "Kunzite has his phone set up to alert him when he's got e-mail. He'll call the others. They'll likely be here in a couple of hours depending on where each of them are... I think Izou is working today, so he might be longer."

Chibiusa, though still crying, decided to tell the rest of the story when the others arrived. Everyone else wondered, to varying degrees, who Izou was.

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><p>Saitou Shin – aka, Kunzite – was just hanging up the land line phone in his office, at home, when his cell went off. Annoyed he picked it up off of his desk and accepted the message. The subject was headed as 'J'. Frowning and sitting back in his ergonomic office chair, he read.<p>

Halfway through he transferred it to his laptop and finished reading it there. When he was done he phoned the others and told them to check their e-mails NOW. He was already out the door and getting into his car by then, heading straight to the temple.

_Not good,_ He thought over and over again, _Not good._

All the while he was going over all of his contacts that might be of use in this situation.

* * *

><p>"I'm really, really sorry Izou-kun!" Maya apologized for the umpteenth time.<p>

"It's fine, really, Maya-san." He answered.

Saitou Izou – aka Zoicite and cousin of Saitou Shin – was currently laying down under his coworker's desk trying to see why the computer tower had started smoking earlier. Normally it would be the boss' step son Shuuichi (with whom she was childhood friends) who helped Maya out with her computer problems. It's not that she has trouble with computers – though that doesn't help – so much as she just has really bad luck with them.

Izou could never quite figure out how he should behave around her. She looks like a carbon copy of Prince Endymion's sister, but he didn't know if the woman really **is** her reincarnation. He supposed that he could find someway to get her to try summoning the familiar of Prince Endymion's sister to determine whether she is or not...

Aha! He found the problem with the computer. Oddly enough it was the cooling fan. Now he just needed to get it out. His cell phone chose then to start buzzing where he had placed it on the undoubtedly uncomfortable office chair (it would have been uncomfortable in his pocket while he was laying on the floor). Maya grabbed it for him and tried to hand it too him.

"Here." She said.

Izou glanced at it, then went back to working on the fan.

"Who is it?" He asked.

Maya checked and answered, "Um... The caller ID says that it's Shin-san."

Izou paused, wondering why his cousin would be calling him when the older man knows that he'd be working. Finally, he stopped working on the fan and worked his way out from under the desk. The cell was still buzzing, which meant that his cousin likely had a very good reason for this call. Like some kind of emergency. Still sitting on the floor he reached for his phone. Maya gave it to him and he answered.

"Hello?"

_"Check your e-mail immediately."_

This was not the voice of Saitou Shin, business tycoon... This was the voice of Kunzite of Ellis, General of Prince Endymion of Earth.

"I can't," Izou answered bluntly, "I'm at work."

_"It's urgent."_

Izou sighed and checked the office wall clock.

"My break doesn't start for another three hours! I'll check it as soon as I can. I promise."

_"...Fine."_

Somehow that one word managed to make Izou feel incredibly guilty. But, as one of the tech support guys at the company, he can't check his personal e-mail on company time. It's just the rules. As it is, his boss had bent the rules for Izou so that he didn't have to cut his hair as long as he kept it braided and tucked down the collar of his shirt. A similar concession had been made for the boss' step son and Izou suspected that he had been allowed as well so that the boss wouldn't look like he was playing favorites.

Shin/Kunzite and Izou both hung up.

He handed his phone back to Maya and said, as he got himself back under the desk, "Now... Lets see about getting this fixed!"

* * *

><p>Masato Light – aka Nephrite – was working on a customization paint job for a client's car that was due to be finished by the middle of next week when his cell phone started ringing. He knew by the ringtone that it was Saitou Shin. About a year after the moon Princess had restored them and they had gotten themselves somewhat set up (and made contact with their families) Shin had given everyone... Special... Ringtones as a practical joke. The Prince and Princess had not been exempt from this. The thing that made these ringtones so special is that they were songs from the various TV shows inspired by the Sailor Senshi (but, thankfully, not the musicals).<p>

This is why Jadeite – aka J. Taitou – and Saitou Izou both keep their cells on vibrate.

Right now Masato Light's pocket was singing Anata no Sei ja Nai, which is one of Sailor Jupiter's songs from the anime. None of his employees so much as blinked. By now they were used to this.

"Hello."

_"Check your e-mail. It's urgent."_

Frowning, Light got up and went to his office. He closed the door behind him and asked, "What's this about?"

He knew this tone of voice very well. Shin was in full Command Mode.

_"I don't have time to explain; I have to drive somewhere. Just check your e-mail."_

And with that General Kunzite hung up. Pocketing his cell Light went over to his desktop and checked his e-mail.

* * *

><p>Jadeite's cell phone buzzed in his breast pocket. After sending off the e-mails he had gone and retrieved his cell from his coat. He'd had a voice mail from his mother asking him to meet up with her in a couple of days. He had texted her that he'd call her in the evening.<p>

Answering his cell he said, "Hello?"

_"I'm on my way."_ Kunzite said from the other end of the line, then promptly hung up.

Jadeite stared at his phone for a moment, then looked up at his liege – still sitting next to the now calmed down little Princess – and said, "Kunzite is in full Commander Mode."

Usagi grimaced and Mamoru sighed.

Minako, Makoto, Ami, Rei, Luna and Chibiusa were all baffled. 'Command Mode'?

"Uh... What are you guys talking about?" Minako asked for all of them.

Usagi and Mamoru suddenly realized that the girls had never seen Kunzite – in either life – in full Command Mode, although Artemis had.

"Well..." Mamoru started tentatively, then turned a pleading look on Jadeite – who had anticipated this – when he realized that he had no idea how to describe Kunzite when he gets like this.

"It's not something that you can adequately describe." Jadeite informed the others calmly, "You'll understand when he gets here."

It had been necessary more than once for Artemis to go to Earth – with no Sailor Venus – so he, like Setsuna, knew exactly what Jadeite meant. He, the Time Guardian, Usagi and Mamoru all very much agreed with the man's assessment.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Please review and tell me what you think of this chapter!


	8. Introducing

**A/N:** First off, thank-you to everyone still reading this and everyone who has faved this, set an alert to know when I update and especially thank-you to everyone who has reviewed. I meant to say this last chapter, but my life has been... Interesting (and not in a good way)... For the last two years (hence the appallingly long gaps between updates) so I ended up forgetting to say 'thank-you' whenever someone reviewed. I am very sorry to all of you; I am not ignoring any review I get. I really appreciate it when you guys click that button and drop me a line; those reviews are the only reason that this fanfic has not been completely abandoned. Thank-you for your patience.

**Now, regarding Shinto shrines, such as the one Rei and her grandfather work and live at...** The Hikawa Shrine is a real set of shrines (I think there's three of them...), but trying to find information on them – such as the general layout – without getting nothing but information on Sailor Mars seems to be impossible for me at this point so I am using the information that I **can** (finally) find on Shinto shrines for the layout of the temple grounds. That said, I couldn't find anything about where the priests and Mikos – Shrine Maidens like Rei – live, so I added a house to the back of the grounds. If anybody has information on that subject, please, by all means, educate me. For anyone interested in information on Shinto shrines I recommend using Wikipedia and this url (I used both):

Triple W dot Japan-zone dot com /omnibus/shrine dot shtml

I would just explain what I learnt here, but that would make this Author's Note way too long and I'm not an expert on the subject matter anyway. Here are some of the things that I'm mentioning in this chapter to make finding out about them a bit easier (and so that you – hopefully – don't have to open another tab just to know what I'm talking about in this chapter):

Torii Gate – The entrance to the Shrine Grounds. It consists of two straight polls mounted by two crossbeams. The top crossbeam is longer than the lower. The Hikawa Shrine in SailorMoon seems to be of the Hachiman torii style (see Wikipedia; search 'Torii' and go to the section of the page you get titled 'Torii styles').

Main Hall – Literal translation of 'Honden'. Enshrines the kami ('god', or 'spirit'). Located behind the other buildings.

Auxiliary Shrines – Literal translation of 'Setsumatsusha'. They "are small or miniature shrines having a deep historical relationship with a more important shrine or with the kami it enshrines, and fall under that shrine's jurisdiction." Quote is from Wikipedia. Search the 'Setsumatsusha' on the site and you'll get the page.

Okay, now to explain what a 'kami' is. In the words of Motoori Norinaga: "[A kami is] any thing or phenomenon that produces the emotions of fear and awe, with no distinction between good and evil." Generally (as far as this author knows) they are attributed supernatural powers and, unlike in Western belief systems, are not found above (in Heaven, for example) but, instead, in the world around us. A kami can inhabit pretty much anything from a random, man-made object to a natural feature of the land (rock, tree... Mountain; size doesn't seem to matter). As such 'spirit' (and not 'deity' or 'god') is a more accurate translation for the word and concept of 'kami'. There's more to it than just that though, so if you're curious I recommend looking it up via books from your local library since that can't be tampered with by others from one day to the next like it can on Wikipedia. Also, you know the name of who wrote it and can look them up to see if they know what they're talking about.

All that said, I recently checked out the re-translated SailorMoon manga from Kodansha Comics and now know that they chose to use 'Guardian' as the translation for 'Senshi', which can also mean 'Warrior'. Due to the fact that the word can be translated as either I was simply using 'Senshi'. For the sake of consistency I will continue to use the Japanese word, rather than the translated.

Man this Author's Note was long. Hope I didn't bore you guys to death.

Onward to the story!

* * *

><p>Grandpa Hino was sweeping the temple grounds near the stairs when he noticed the white haired, dark-skinned man with the intense gray eyes staring up at him from the street level... The stranger was wearing a gray business suit, a black shirt and a yellow tie. In one hand he carried a suitcase, the other he had stuffed into his trouser pocket. After a moment of staring back the old priest realized that he was, in fact, not being stared at after all; the man was staring up at the top of the stone torii gate at the top of the stairs. Curious, he took a couple of steps back to look up at the top of the gate and there he found his granddaughter's two ravens – Deimos and Phobos – perched on the upper of the two crossbeams, staring back at the man. They were unusually calm and quiet. Normally they'd at least make a pretense at being normal ravens and move about appropriately, but not this time. This time they looked like statues. They were utterly and unnaturally still.<p>

"Guys," He said up to them, "That's creepy. Stop it."

One of them turned their regard down to him, the one eye it fixed on him calm and assessing. Finally Deimos shifted to her tiny, humanoid form. She was wearing a simple, moderately dark red leotard, high-cut over the hips and partially covering her neck. On her chest was a black, six-point star with the topmost point on the neck of the leotard and the bottom point elongated. On her feet – though grandpa Hino couldn't see them at the moment due to the angle he was seeing her at – were black highheels, only covering her heels and toes. Wrapped around her ankles were crisscrossed black ribbons tied in the front. On her back were translucent bows, one on her upper back, one on her lower. Her hair was long, straight and black. On the sides of her head, over her ears, were flat buns from which hung a lock of hair each. Over her forehead her hair draped to the sides and were gathered into the buns. Two shorter locks of hair framed the middle of her forehead.

"He was once Kunzite of the Earth Kingdom Elli and an ally who turned against the Moon Kingdom..." Deimos explained, "The Mistress," That was Rei, "Allowed his comrade onto the shrine grounds, but we do not know if she would allow another... Especially one so much more powerful."

"So, go ask her." He said in answer.

Reluctantly and with a glance to her sister, who had not looked away from Kunzite, she flew off – still in humanoid form and without the aid of any wings – towards the shrine proper. The old priest shook his head. The man at the bottom of the stairs maybe powerful, but his was a tightly controlled power; he wasn't likely to unleash it carelessly.

* * *

><p>Rei was walking in front of Makoto as the taller woman carefully carried a coffee table down the hall. There already wasn't enough space around the other one for everyone and three more guys were about to arrive so they were getting a couple more to place in the room. The rest of the group was busy moving the mobile walls to make more space at the moment. Makoto would be going back for one more table once the one she was currently carrying was set up. The need for laptop space was a given. As Luna had said; they needed a Conference Room. Badly.<p>

Deimos came floating around the corner at speed, stopping a few feet in front of her mistress to give her a second to stop. Surprised, Rei did so, staring at the small, floating sprite in front of her.

"Deimos? What is it?"

"Kunzite is at the bottom of the shrine steps. Phobos is keeping an eye on him."

"He was invited," Rei answered, flicking back some of her long raven-colored hair hanging down her back, "Let him enter the grounds."

Deimos hesitated, then bowed mid-air and said, "Yes Mistress." before darting off back the way she had come.

* * *

><p>Deimos landed next to her sister – who was still in raven form – and passed on Rei's orders to her twin before turning to look down the steps at Kunzite. She pursed her lips for a moment, then spoke.<p>

"YOU MAY COME!"

Her tiny, high-pitched voice carried with shocking volume, startling everyone including her sister and nearly giving grandpa Hino a heartattack.

Kunzite (aka Saitou Shin) jumped half out of his skin, but quickly gathered himself and started climbing the temple stairs apprehensively. He was nervous about seeing the girls, but if Taitou (Jadeite) sent that e-mail with the text file and was asking everyone to meet at Rei's as soon as possible, then it was obviously important. The man had always been a very serious kind of person (and quite frankly didn't seem to know what a 'joke' is). What Shin had read in that text file had made his blood turn to ice. Compared to the Sailor Senshi and his Prince he, Taitou, Light and Izou were like flies, but each of them do still have a bit of power and all of them have connections that may be useful in reducing the death toll. If Chaos was going to come back and could do what the future princess said she could do and if Sailor Moon would be unable to fight her off like last time... Then they needed as many people as possible to be prepared to handle the situation.

With that knowledge bolstering him he climbed to the top of the long flight of stairs. It was time for all of them to take up their responsibilities again. Now finding himself standing next to the old, short priest Shin turned, took a couple of steps back and gave Grandpa Hino a polite bow before asking, "Can you tell me where Hino Rei is please?"

"My granddaughter?" The old man enjoyed the look of surprise on Saitou's face for a moment before continuing, "Sure. She's in the house at the back of the grounds. Just go past the Auxiliary Shrines. You'll find a path leading around the Main Hall to a courtyard. The house is across from it."

"Thank-you." Shin replied with another, if quicker, bow before heading off to where the old man had indicated.

A few minutes later found him rounding the corner to the courtyard where he spotted a pair of young girls struggling with large, bright red, folding tables. Both had the normal dark brown hair that bordered on being black and is typical of... Well... The majority of the world. He couldn't see either of their faces, but both were wearing the red hakama over a white kimono that a shrine maiden – a Miko like Hino Rei – generally wears. One of them had her hair pulled back into a pair of tails on either side of her head (they're called twin-tails if he recalled correctly), while the other girl had a simple braid that ended just below her shoulder blades. He couldn't tell if they were trying to get the legs up, or down. After watching them struggle for a few beats he decided to help them if they would accept the offer.

"Excuse me." He called to get their attention, slightly startling both girls.

They turned to look at him and he realized that they were siblings (he also noticed that they both have freckles). One had eyes the color of new leaves and a mild expression on her face. The other had eyes of that peculiarly ambiguous shade of gray that was to light to be called 'dark', to dark to be called 'medium' and slightly tinted either brown or green, but it seems to be impossible to tell which. It was a shade of gray that Siatou had only ever seen on people with naturally darker pigmentation, so it was a bit strange to see it on a Japanese face... A face that was frowning and scowling at him.

"Ah, sorry, I didn't mean to stare. I was just wondering if you guys would like some help...?"

"Go away, we don't need help from one of Queen Beryl's lackeys!" The one with gray eyes snapped at him.

Rather than feel a stab of guilt from that time, or even shame, Shin felt... Angry. He had been manipulated, brainwashed, had his freewill completely stripped from him and then killed by the people he should have been calling his allies... All because Queen Beryl was jealous of Princess Serenity and greedy for power. He hated the bitch. There had been a time when he had pitied and felt sorry for her, but that had passed a while ago.

While the girl with the braid (and temper) struggled with the folding legs her sister noticed Shin's anger and ran to get Rei. In the meantime the angry business man set his suitcase down and marched over to the remaining girl. He placed his hands on her shoulders, making her jump half out of her skin, then – careful not to hurt the girl – he picked her up and moved her to one side before proceeding to finish unfolding the legs for her; it had become apparent in her struggles that this was what she had been trying to do. He then proceeded to take care of the other set of legs and set the table upright. That done he walked over to the rude child, picked her up again and sat her down on the table itself. He did this so that he wasn't looming over her as much and because he was fairly certain that she had been old enough during the time of the Silver Millennium that if he knelt down to her height she might think he was looking down on her.

Putting his hands in his pockets he asked, "Have you ever been brainwashed child?"

"No! I wouldn't be that stupid!"

"Have you ever had a powerful mind invade your own, whispering to your subconscious? Clawing away at your will and your reasoning, convincing you that it's voice is your own voice? That what it wants is what you want?"

"...No..."

"Have you ever... Have you ever had your will locked away somewhere that you can't reach so that you can't disobey? So that you can't break away?"

"...No."

"Then do not judge me; **you don't have the right**."

She flinched, but nodded.

Satisfied for the moment he turned around and walked over to where his suitcase waited, picked it up and turned towards the house. Rei was standing on the raised, wood walkway surrounding it, watching him. The other girl was standing next to and slightly behind the raven-haired woman. The expression on the child's face was one of surprise and relief. An understanding passed between Rei and Saitou Shin; they had both been through the exact same thing. Neither of them yet realized it, but there was now a trust between them that hadn't ever been there before... And a new-found friendship.

She turned to the girl standing with her and said, "Ume-chan, go help Kaede-chan finish with the set up. You guys can come get a snack after that."

The green-eyed girl ran over to her sister to help.

"C'mon," Rei said to Shin, "The front door is this way."

* * *

><p>Masato Light – once called Nephrite – pulled into the medium-sized, nearly empty, public parking lot and parked his Lotus Elise. He had since thrown on a pair of sunglasses and a light blue, open button-down over his dark gray tank-top. He had on a pair of plain, denim pants since he had come straight from work, where he had been working on a client's car. The pants were fairly new, so there was only a bit of paint on them. On his feet were basic construction boots that were good for his painting cars, but not so good for the current weather. Thank goodness for odor-absorbing socks and baby powder. Having a darker coloration seems to mean having a stronger body odor for some reason.<p>

Pulling the key out of the ignition Light then undid his seat belt, opened the door and stepped into a wave of heat. Straightening with a grimace, he locked the car door and closed it before stepping back to admire the paint job one of his employees had done for him. The main color of the car was dark red and over top that was two flip-paint jobs. One color flip was to bronze tiger stripes and the other was to smokey black flames... And if you looked from the correct angle it would seem like the stripes were on fire. It was one of the best paint jobs that Light had ever seen. Not surprisingly he had given the employee that had done it a raise and then told them that said person was going to be training all the other employees who do paint jobs.

He wondered if Kino-san – aka Sailor Jupiter – would like the car as much as he did...

Light gave his head a firm shake, shoving his car keys into his pants' pocket.

_Focus!_ He told himself sternly and pulled his thick, wavy hair out of it's ponytail to finger-comb it into a neater one.

Turning around to find the meter he instead spotted a white, run-down, beat-up car that he couldn't even identify the model of. He did – however – get the gut feeling that it was Sailor Venus' for some reason... It also had a ticket. Oh dear. He'd ask her if that really was her car once he got to the temple. In the meantime he needed to go pay the meter.

It took him a moment to realize that Shin's car was parked one space over from Venus', which made him smirk. Shin was always finding something to tease the rest of them about, now Light had something to tease him about.

He turned back towards the meter, walked over and paid it. A ticket popped out and he went back to his car, unlocked the door, opened it, leaned in and placed it on the dashboard where it could be seen. Light then extracted himself again before locking and closing his car door. He was tempted to take another moment to admire his car again, but made himself instead turn in the direction of the Hikawa Shrine and start walking. No mater how much he loves his cars he wasn't about to become so obsessed with any of them that he delays on an important meeting that could help save lives. That would just be dumb and shallow.

As Light walked he started going over the people he knew that might be able to help. He knew a guy named Yusuke (married to Light's cousin, Keiko; at least the punk had grown up to be a decent man) who's fairly powerful and might be able to help... The question was whether or not he'd **want** to help.

Light was so absorbed in his thoughts that he literally walked into somebody.

"Ah, I'm sorry!" Light said, stumbling back, even as the other guy blurted out his own apology and they both said at the same time, "I wasn't paying attention!"

The two stared at eachother for a moment before recognition hit and they both realized who they had run into. The man that Light had bumped into had screaming orange hair done up in a Pompadour (Light had yet to see the guy's hair done any other way). He had small eyes and ridiculously high, sharp cheekbones set in a long face. He was tall and a bit stalky like Light; he was wearing a mint-green T-shirt, denim pants and white sneakers. Both had met through Urameshi Yusuke sometime ago. The man's name was Kuwabara Kazuma.

"Oh, uh, hey Light... Where you headed?"

Kuwabara was not one for formalities, which was fine with Light.

"Hikawa Shrine."

"Oh, hey, me too. Going to talk to a Hino Rei about some visions I've had. Heard she's pretty good with this kind of thing. So why are you headed there?"

_Actually..._ Light thought before answering, _This guy might be useful._

"Theoretically," He said out loud, "To stop the end of the world."

"Eheh... If it weren't for the premonitions I've been having lately I'd think that you were joking or completely out of your mind..." Kuwabara replied, a little taken aback.

"Ah, Couldn't really blame you... But to stop what's coming will require help from a lot of people. Is Yusuke available?"

The third man present, who had been walking with Kuwabara and silent until now, chose to speak up right then.

"I'll give him a call."

Light nearly had a heartattack and whipped his head around to see a man with dark hair tied into a ponytail and large, intense, but veiled eyes. He was wearing a plain white T-shirt and brown shorts. A pair of expensive sandals were on his feet. In his hand was a cell phone as he dialed. If Light hadn't heard him speak before hand he would have thought that the man with Kuwabara was a woman, which was why he was glad that he had.

"Oh, right, you guys have never met until now." Kuwabara commented, "Masato Light, meet Minamino Suuichi. Yusuke and I call him Kurama. Don't ask why; it's complicated. Kurama, this is Masato Light."

Kurama and Light shook hands (the feminine-looking man with his cellphone to his ear) and a strong sense of familiarity passed between them. Their hands fell away and neither of them could place where the feeling had come from. Kurama put his free hand in his pocket as the two men stared at eachother steadily.

"Ah! Good! Yusuke!" Kurama said abruptly, turning his attention to the person on the other end of the call, "Yes, I'm fine. Do you think that you could meet us at the Hikawa Shrine on Sundaizakaue?... Yes, I know you have a shop to run, but this is very important... Do you remember the last time Kuwabara had one of his doomsday visions?"

"Hey! They're not that regular!" The man in question exclaimed.

Light made a 'calm down' gesture at him and he subsided.

"Yeah, he had another one... Because in Kuwabara's vision he met and talked to Sailor Mars... No, it's more like the dreamwalking a told you about awhile ago... Oh, good; you're memory's getting better!"

Some annoyed yelling could be heard from the other side the phone as Kurama pulled his cell away from his ear. The patient look on his face told Light two things; he was used to this and had a streak of mischief in him.

_Damn fox hasn't changed a bit..._ Light thought – and then realized where the sense of familiarity had come from.

_Why does he look like a woman...?_

The yelling passed and Kurama brought it back to his, continuing where he had left off.

"Anyway Sailor Mars lives at the Hikawa Shrine we're headed to... No, she's one of the Miko there... The oldest. Trust me; she's hard to miss... Because when you start bumping into people who could help you save the world, generally speaking, you shouldn't pass up the opportunity... Thank-you. And try to remember to use some semblance of manners; her temper's worse than Hiei's... Yes they are... When was the last time that you voluntarily said 'please' and 'thank-you' without a reminder from Keiko?... Oh, well, that's an improvement. Just remember to use 'san' when addressing her... Alright, see you then... Hm? Okay."

Kurama hung up and pocketed his cell before saying to Kuwabara and Light, "He's bringing Jin and the others."

Light had no idea who Jin was, but hoped that he and his friends could help... Now the question was... How's he going to explain – convincingly – that he had nothing to do with these two knowing Sailor Mars' secret identity?

With a sigh Light said, "C'mon, lets get going..."

They started walking, though it was in silence. It took Kurama a few minutes to figure out what was bothering Light and when he did he debated whether or not he wanted to reassure the man or let him flounder. Kurama decided on reassuring since a first meeting isn't usually the best time to pull prank of any kind on someone.

"Don't worry Masato-san," Kurama added the honorific due to how they had met and how little they knew of eachother, "Hino-san is already aware that I know her other identity. She'll probably just assume that I was the one who told Kuwabara since I'm the one who's bringing him."

"...Hopefully." Light replied.

"I doubt that she'll hold being brainwashed into betraying your friends and allies against you... Considering that it's happened to her as well. She's not a hypocrite."

"True. But she's not the only one that I'm worried about."

"I don't think that they're hypocrites either... And I'm sure that you can patch things up with Jupiter... From what Mamoru-san told me you two had a... Strong... Relationship."

Kuwabara watched with interest as Light's cheeks colored.

"That's not what I meant! Ah, just drop it!" The brunette snapped.

Kurama smirked slightly in amusement... And reflected that he was, perhaps, a little overly bored. Kuwabara silently sympathized with his fellow Human.

* * *

><p>Saitou Izou – aka Zoicite – came up the stairs at a run. After reading the attachment in the E-mail he had been sent earlier he now felt guilty about not coming sooner, though he new that it couldn't have been helped. Him getting fired wouldn't have don't anyone any good; his boss is a good man, but strict (his family notwithstanding) when it comes to his business.<p>

He paused just inside the temple grounds and bent over, hands on knees, panting to catch his breath. Standing a short distance away was Sailor Venus on her cell phone.

_Aino Minako! Aino Minako! Aino Minako!_ He reminded himself; it wouldn't do to go blurting out her other identity in front of anyone not in the know.

The blond – her hair tied up the same way it had been the other day, but without her bangs pinned in place – spotted him and gestured which way he needed to go to get to the others. He nodded his thanks and sped off, wondering who she was talking to, then chided himself for being nosy; he doesn't do spy work anymore. He went past the Auxiliary Shrines, around the Main Hall and came to the courtyard where all of the others were scattered about. In the center of the courtyard were two tables butted end-to-end, covered with a tablecloth each and an impressive array of food.

On the opposite side of the courtyard was a house with a porch and no railing. Sitting on the porch steps was Princess Serenity – Chiba Usagi, he reminded himself – with Shin sitting cross-legged behind her and working on his laptop. Izou got the impression that, although his cousin seemed to be focusing on what he was doing, he was also on alert for any threats to the expectant mother... Which told Izou that Shin had decided to take up his responsibilities as Kunzite, General of Prince Endymion, once again. Sitting perched on the edge of the porch was Izou's boss' son, who was watching him with a casual air. There was an air of easy friendliness between him and the Princess. Then again, they both get along with just about everyone they meet.

_What is he doing here?_ Izou wondered, but put it aside for the moment.

Sailor Mars – Hino Rei – was nowhere in sight, so he wondered if the Miko was meditating in front of the Sacred Fire. The others were divided into two groups; Mercury – Mizuno Ami – with Artimis, Luna and J. Taitou (Izou was going to find out what that 'J' stands for one of these days...) on one side of the courtyard. The other group consisted of Sailor Jupiter – Kino Makoto – with Light, and Prince Endymion – Chiba Mamoru – on the other.

"Help yourself to the food." Makoto called from where she was talking with Light and the Prince when she spotted Izou.

"Ah, er, thank-you Ju – I-I mean Kino-san!"

She smiled in amusement and said, "You're welcome."

"Eat up Izou," Kunzite (this was the General talking, not Saitou Shin) added, "Because you're going to loose your apatite before the story's over."

It wasn't that Chibiusa had already continued with her tale before Izou showed up, just that Kunzite/Shin understood that the story wasn't going to get any happier and he knows what his cousin is like.

"There's still more?" Izou exclaimed right on cue, already a bit upset.

"Yes." Kunzite answered simply, giving him a look that the younger man rightfully interpreted as 'suck it up and put your game face on'.

Following the silent command the youngest of Endymion's Generals – and the 'little brother' of their group – took a deep breath, closing his eyes and disciplined his mind and heart. This wasn't the time, nor place, for him to be getting upset; it helped no one and would only be a hindrance.

_There is no time for sentimentality; put the emotions aside. Discard your weakness!_

This was something that all of the Generals had learned to do in some form or another; it was why they all underwent such a dramatic shift when they were 'on duty'. Izou was just the most brutally direct about it with himself. Opening his eyes again he saw Kunzite give him a slight nod, acknowledging Izou's internal shift to 'Zoicite'. For the most part the four of them hadn't shown this part of themselves while serving Beryl, partially because they didn't have their memories at the time and partially because they weren't themselves either.

As he took in the scene around him a second time he realized that Minamino's cool assessment was anything but casual; he was sizing up Zoicite/Izou. Assessing whether he was a help, hindrance, or an enemy. Zoicite noted the uncharacteristic expression and matched him look for look until the man smiled faintly, amused. That was when Zoicite realized that his boss' son was either very powerful, bluffing, or just full of himself. There was also something naggingly familiar about him... Beyond the obvious. It was something that whispered of that ancient past when he still served Prince Endymion.

Just then Venus, still in her civilian guise, came around the corner holding her orange, flip cell phone in one hand and announced in the direction of the Princess and Kunzite, "Alright General, they want to meet up with you tomorrow afternoon at three to discuss things. Seems that they like your idea."

"If someone could please update me?" Zoicite asked before the conversation could go any further.

"He came up with the idea of an inter-racial policing division for dealing with what's coming." Minako explained, "It's going to be operating under the pretense of keeping the peace between Humans and Youkai. Kurama-san over there," She gestured to Minamino Suuichi sitting next to the Princess, "Will be in charge of a lot of the training for anyone not Human, or not entirely Human. He's also going to be assisting with teaching and training any Humans with unusual powers. The Special Division of the police force that Artemis and I work for are interested in your cousin's idea... Although they have no idea what it'll actually be for."

Her explanation done Zoicite wondered why 'Kurama' sounded so familiar, then remembered that there's a mountain by the same name. Now the real question, he well knew, was actually, 'Why did she call him 'Kurama' when his name is Minamino Suuichi?'. While he was contemplating this Minako turned to the others and asked, "Where are Kuwabara-san and Rei-chan?"

"She took him to do a fire reading." Kurama supplied.

Deciding that it would be easier to think on a less empty stomach Zoicite went over to the table and started filling up a plate with food.

"Hmm... Okay." Minako answered, tapping the corner of her cell against her chin, "I'll go check to see if they're done."

With that she turned and walked back the way she had come. That was when Usagi's stomach decided to – loudly – announce that it needs filling. Everyone turned to stare at her in surprise. She blushed and decided to join Zoicite in getting some food.

* * *

><p><span>Ten Minutes Ago...<span>

* * *

><p>"Alright sit down over there." Rei instructed, indicating where she wanted him to sit, "And face toward the fire."<p>

"Okay..." Kuwabara answered, seating himself next to the fire.

Technically no one but a priest or Miko is supposed to be in this part of the temple since the fire is the sacred object in which the shrine's kami dwells in, but Rei figured that it would be fine in this instance. She sat down at a right angle to him, also facing the fire and started walking him through the steps of meditation. It started to respond almost immediately. When the vision came something that wasn't supposed to ever happen did: Rei was pulled into his vision.

S

_A woman with rust-colored hair and dark skin stood up in the sky, her hair flying out like a banner. Clothing her was a black gown with an embroidered white diamond-burst across her abdomen. Her gown had long sleeves that came to a point on the backs of her hands. In one of them she held a tall staff topped by two birds – one black and one white – in flight, facing each other with beaks touching. A brilliant light shone from between them that blinded both Rei and Kuwabara. Arrayed around the woman were hounds of black smoke while beneath her were ruins as far as the eye could see and all of it was littered in corpses._

_ Some of them were familiar._

_ The woman turned to look at them and said, "This is your future. You will never win!"_

S

Rei and Kuwabara came reeling out of the vision panting. That was about the clearest vision of the future Rei had ever experienced. She wondered if it was possible for Sailor Chaos to influence the vision from where she was at the Gates. To get the answer to that question Rei knew that she was going to have to talk to Sestuna.

"I think..." Kuwabara finally said, "That pretty well cleared up what I've been seeing the last little while..."

"That was what you've been seeing?" Rei asked, her voice more strained than she would have liked.

"Yeah, except that it was all chopped up and I couldn't focus on anything... Wait! You saw it too?"

"Yes. It's not supposed to be possible – as far as I know – but I did."

"Wow... So that was pretty weird."

"Very."

They both sat there in silence for several moments, staring at the sacred fire and contemplating what they had seen. After a time they both decided that it was time to go talk to the others...

Rei decided that it might be a good idea to give Kuwabara a copy of the transcript that Ami had written. They had told the two new-comers that there was a massive threat – a rogue Sailor Senshi – coming who was going to cause a lot of trouble and destruction... And that was about it. Initially it had been decided to send Kuwabara and Kurama away once Chibiusa was ready to continue with her story, but now Rei didn't think that was going to be such a good idea. For one thing, Rei had seen both men's dead bodies among those of the Senshi (and a few others that Rei didn't recognize, though she had sensed that they were familiar to Kuwabara) in the vision. One way or the other Kuwabara, Kurama and their friends were going to be on the front lines; better that they know what they're dealing with than not.

Both Rei and Kuwabara silently stood and left the fire room.

Within the sacred fire the kami watched them go and nodded in approval. He wondered if Kurama had sensed him yet.

* * *

><p>Pluto stood amid the misty fog of the Gates, waiting, her Garnet Orb glowing. She had already slipped away more than once without the others noticing to stop Sailor Chaos from getting through. This time, however, she was at the Gates to investigate the presences she had been sensing for the last little while. She didn't know who they were, but they had been fighting Sailor Chaos extensively; they were the reason that she was able to leave the Gates even though Sailor Chaos was running around trying to get through them. Normally she'd stay anyway, but she had already seen this timeline and knew that she would end up trapped by Sailor Chaos if she did stay.<p>

Thus, Sailor Pluto had to trust in these strangers to keep the Gates safe, while she helped her Princess and fellow Senshi to figure out how to stop Sailor Chaos.

For now, though, one of the strangers was injured and needed to be taken through the Gates. The person could sense the power given off by her Garnet Orb and was heading towards it. Unfortunately, so did Sailor Chaos and she was also heading towards Pluto. The stranger was – thankfully – much faster. She stopped the Orb's signal as he appeared out of the mists, a faint, golden glow surrounding him. He had stiffly spiky, pale golden hair, scowling, intense, mint green eyes and was very muscular. The man was wearing a simple black tank top (half of it missing), baggy, denim pants (torn to shreds) held up with a belt. Strapped to his back with a blue, buckled strap was a sheath. The black-handled, two-handed sword that belonged to it was held in his right hand.

He was covered in his own blood and bruises were swelling up everywhere.

She held her hand out to him and said, "You're too injured to keep fighting. Come with me."

He hesitated, suspicious.

Acting on a suspicion about why they were in the Fourth Dimension she asked, "Did Small Lady tell you about the Sailor Senshi that gave her Luna-P?"

"...Yes."

"I am Sailor Pluto."

He looked her over, recalling his pink-haired friend's description of the Guardian of Time. She did match up, but he'd need some proof first.

"The Kalvague System."

Sailor Pluto's face turned bright red.

"She-she told you about that?"

"No. Just that something embarrassing had happened to you there that she was sworn to secrecy on. I needed to confirm that you really are Sailor Pluto."

"Ah, yes... That's understandable." She answered calmly, her face still flaming red, though it was starting to fade.

She finally let her hand drop.

"Well," Said a cranky, gruff voice.

It was followed by a short, stalky man with the same colored hair (although, in his case, it was all standing straight up and he seemed to have a receding hairline) and eyes as the first man. He was wearing a torn, blue body suit and white gloves. He was bleeding only marginally and didn't have any visible bruises.

"Now that the two of you have that sorted out – go away." He continued his sentence, then turned to the younger and taller man (who had a striking resemblance to him) and said, "She's right; you're too injured. You're just a hindrance now."

"Vegeta!" A new voice exclaimed, "Isn't that a little harsh?"

A new man stepped out of the mists, this one missing his shirt. Around his waist as a tied, black belt and the tattered remains of the upper half of his bright orange, ripped up garment. His hair and eyes were the same color as those of the other two. Like the second man to have walked out of the mists – Vegeta – his hair stood straight up. Unlike his counterpart, however, he had bangs and no receding hairline.

Annoyance mounting he turned and snapped at the newcomer, "Stay out of this Kakarot!" Turning to the first of them to step out of the mists he added, "And you get out of here before you slow us down any further! You're in the way!"

With that he stalked off the same way he had come. They watched him leave in silence a little shocked at his outburst. Then the names finally registered in Pluto's mind and she realized that these men were from the Thanatos system. Judging by their builds and lack of any advanced technology to aid in combat they were specifically Saiyans. That was something of a surprise.

"Guess he's feeling a bit cranky about loosing so far."

"That was still a bit much." Pluto commented.

"Yeah... But that's Vegeta. Plus he's worried about Trunks since he's more injured than the rest of us."

"He's got a funny way of showing it." Trunks said, sounding annoyed, although Pluto got the impression that he was feeling a bit hurt.

Kakarot turned to face Trunks and put a hand on his shoulder and said, "Don't worry about it; he's just bad at expressing what he's feeling."

_Since when are Saiyans bad at __**that**__?_ Pluto wondered incredulously.

They're far from weepy, but you always now what they're feeling.

"Sailor Chaos is almost here." A new and familiar voice said from behind Sailor Pluto, surprising her, but not making her jump, "Get going, both of you."

Sailor Pluto gave herself only that one moment to feel surprised at the presence of Queen Serenity's brother before taking the injured man with the sword by the hand and pulling him towards the Gates. Lifting her Key Staff high the Orb glowed and the Gates opened. She and the Saiyan passed through and the last thing that the other men heard her say was, "Focus on our destination. Year two thousand, August second. Hikawa Shrine on..."

The Gates closed and Sailor Chaos arrived moments later. She now had three Super Saiyan warriors to contend with.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** I hope that the length of this at least partially makes up for the long wait. Probably doesn't. Any comments, or questions?


	9. Planning Ahead

**A/N:** Well, this chapter (not including this Author's Note) is over 10,300 words long, so I apologize if I missed anything when I edited this.

_Maeleana_ and _Gimei_ - Thank-you for deciding to follow this story. I hope I don't disappoint! Sorry Maeleana, but I've discontinued Unexpected Encounter and will be removing it. And Gimei I'm glad that you like the descriptive I use so far. Let me now if you spot any errors in blending the continuities of the various series that I'm working with!

For those readers who have thoughts on any points on any aspect of this chapter please note them down and put them in a review if you would! I would really like to hear you're guys' opinion. So far I'm really not hearing much from you guys. Trust me; the feedback really helps!

In any case, enjoy the story!

* * *

><p>Trunks and Sailor Pluto were standing in a door-shaped opening in the sky staring down at Hikiwa Shrine. His hair had since fallen down from it's spiky style and was now lavender instead of pale gold while his eyes had changed from mint green to sapphire blue. He was exhausted from all of the fighting he had done, his injuries and then going through the time corridor. Pluto wondered if he could make the hundred and fifty foot drop safely.<p>

She doubted it.

Below them no one had noticed their presence since – technically – they weren't yet in the same time-space as them. Despite this Small Lady came outside, drawing everyone's attention to her in the process as Luna-P trailed behind her. Princess Serenity – her white hair making her easily distinguishable from the rest – got up from the table and moved toward the pink-haired girl. Small Lady looked straight up at Pluto and Trunks, somehow knowing that they were there. Everyone else followed her gaze, including the Princess (who tripped because she was still walking towards her daughter). It was hard to tell their reactions from a hundred and fifty feet away, but they seemed to be fairly surprised. Small Lady turned her gaze away, picked-up Luna-P and bounced her hard against the ground. A moment and a puff of pink smoke later and there, on the ground, was a flat, dully silver oval with a cane-like handle sticking up from the middle. The pink-haired girl walked onto it, grabbed the handle and sent the disc floating up into the air and straight towards Pluto and Trunks.

Only a couple of minutes later and she was standing right in front of them, still in her pajamas, her hair down and her eyes – like her expression – blank and distant. It broke Pluto's heart. Trunks clenched his fists, causing more blood to seep out of the wounds on his arms, the one on the back of his left hand and out of the scrapes on his knuckles.

Small Lady noticed this and raised her free hand, holding it out to him. He unclenched one of his and, with great delicacy, took her tiny hand with two fingers and his thumb. She 'helped' him onto the disk, then looked to Pluto who – heart still breaking for the fragile princess – stepped onto the disc as well. Small Lady took them down to the others. As they drew closer to the ground Pluto noticed Trunks – his attention on everyone else – placing his hand on Small Lady's head, causing the girl to nearly start crying. He seemed to notice this because he said something to her so quietly that Pluto almost didn't hear him.

"Deep breaths. Grieving comes when the fighting's done."

Small Lady gave a tiny nod.

Sailor Pluto wanted to use her Gate Key Staff to club the man upside the head, but she refrained because she knew that he was right; her reaction was just her desire to protect Small Lady, even if it wasn't her place to do so.

The disk touched down and Mamoru, standing next to his once-more-standing wife immediately said to Trunks, pointing to the wrap-around porch, "You. Sit." The command was so implicit that Trunks moved to obey before he could think to do otherwise.

"Those injuries need treating." Mamoru added.

When Trunks had only been sixteen years old he had traveled back in time in order to save the world in hos own time. He had then returned to his own and defeated an android duo terrorizing the world. Ever since then he'd had to be telling people what to do to help rebuild; the world had needed a leader after being terrorized for nearly twenty years and – as the hero who had saved everyone – Trunks had been the one that everyone had turned to. There had been 'official' leaders who were technically the ones in charge, but even they had eventually turned to him because he seemed to know what he was doing while everyone else was in a daze from finally being free of constant fear. The truth was that he'd hadn't had a clue what he was doing; he'd simply seen a problem that he could fix and fixed it, then found himself going one to fix the next one. Without realizing it he'd ended up going from one problem to the next, trying to fix them all and get the world back on it's feet. He hadn't meant to take on that task, but he couldn't just leave people to suffer when he saw that he could make things better for them. His goals – fixing one problem after the other – had pulled people to him like magnets because he was focused, quietly driven, he had saved them all, he cared what happened to them and now they all felt lost and needed someone to show them what to do. Trunks had been so intent on getting done what needed to be gotten done that he had started delegating to others when it was something he couldn't do himself. The more problems he fixed the more he found that he had to delegate until he was eventually just telling everyone what to do.

It had taken his father pointing out that he had seemed to be the one in charge of everyone else before he had even noticed. By then he was so used to giving orders and not taking them that most people couldn't effectively order him around anymore. If he listened it was because he chose to.

Mamoru had managed it because he had far more experience in being the one in charge from when he was Prince Endymion and leading Earth's largest military in the unification of his world (the king had to retire from those endeavors so that he could run the government). Mamoru still didn't remember everything, but he remembered enough that the tone of voice and attitude necessary to get people to listen was once again instinctive.

So Trunks sat down, then wondered why he had listened and how the dark haired and gray-eyed man had done it. Small Lady and Pluto both stepped off of the disc and it turned back into Luna-P.

"Rei can you bring me a First Aid kit?" Mamoru asked as he tried to figure out where to start.

His patient was covered in blood.

Trunks surveyed the group around him, wondering which one was Rei and noting that he could sense very powerful 'magical' energy coming off of all of them. He also noticed that there were several pretty women around him (and one pretty man that could be easily mistaken for a woman). He had never in his eventful, battle-filled life had time to think about girls, let alone pursue them, but that didn't mean that he doesn't notice them. He wasn't used to so many of them at once, though, so – flustered – he turned his eyes to his pointy-toed boots with a faint blush and stayed silent.

"Sure." Rei answered in response to Mamoru's request and went to get it.

Trunks noticed that she was the haughty-looking one in red bottoms that could be either extraordinarily loose pants or a skirt. They had a bow of matching color and shade on the front and a stark-white fold over shirt tucked into them and had full sleeves that fell short of her wrists. On her feet were white socks that were parted between the big toe and the rest of her toes.

"Kurama," Mamoru went on, "I'll need your help to patch him up."

"Hm... I'm not really sure how much help I can be this time; he's only half Human and I don't know how the other half could or will react to my herbs."

That came from the too-pretty man.

"Fine." Mamoru answered, "But you can still help me stitch and bandage him up."

"Your herbs will work fine on him Kurama-san." Pluto told him, "He's half Saiyan; they're immune to almost everything. His Human half is fairly robust as well."

Kurama nodded as Rei returned with the First Aid kit – it had been in the kitchen, which takes all of two minutes to walk too from the front of the porch – and a mortar and pestle. The kitchen was also within easy hearing range, so she had heard Mamoru's request for Kurama's herbs. He and Mamoru set to work on Trunks. The lavender-haired man, in turn, watched Small Lady and Pluto; Pluto had her hand on the pink-haired and red-eyed girl's shoulder as Small Lady stood in a daze. Trunks knew that shell-shocked look very well by now from seeing it on so many other faces. He knew that he had to pull her out of it as soon as possible.

He raised his head and said, startling everyone, "Small Lady, have you eaten?"

As tempted as Mamoru was to stop what he was doing and pay attention to his traumatized little girl he was also a doctor treating a patient, so he stayed focused even as he strained to here her answer. Kurama did the same, but everyone else had their attention trained on the time-traveling princess.

"...This morning..." She finally answered.

"What time is it now?"

"...I don't know."

Mamoru paused what he was doing – cleaning a wound as Kurama prepared a mix of herbs – long enough to check his watch.

"It's 6:33." He supplied.

Just as he added "Go eat." Trunks said, "You need to eat."

Mamoru gave Trunks a look the other man couldn't read, but then turned back to cleaning out the wound on Trunks' arm.

"I'm not hungry." Small Lady replied.

"That's just shock. You still need to eat. I've seen this before and so have you. You know better."

Now the look Mamoru gave him was one of surprise. This time Trunks ignored him in favor of Small Lady; she was getting a pouty, stubborn look. Before Trunks could argue with her the woman with her white came forward. She had her hair hair tied up in two buns that trailed long tails and had a golden crescent moon on her forehead. Trunks noticed that Small Lady looked like a pink haired, red-eyed and younger version of the woman. He wondered if they were related; she didn't just look like his small friend, she carried that same, immense, gentle and fierce power within her. He belatedly remembered Small Lady had explained that one of the people she would be seeking out help from would be her mother's past self.

"Come on Small Lady." The white-haired woman said, "You should try to eat something, even if it's only a little. You have my apatite; you'll need the fuel."

The last statement confirmed Trunks' suspicions that the woman was Small Lady's mother. Which constituted the extent of his knowledge regarding the group; the pink-haired girl had never talked about her past no matter how much people asked her. If it didn't pertain to stopping Sailor Chaos her lips stayed sealed about the past. "It doesn't matter." was all that she'd say about it.

Her mother placed her hands gently on her shoulders and led her towards the food-laden table. Small Lady followed in silence, unresistant. Reluctantly, she started to eat and everyone breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

* * *

><p>While Usagi got Small Lady to eat – Saitou Izou sitting almost right next to them – Rei grabbed her straw-woven sandals from just inside and slipped them on and walked over Pluto as she released her transformation and returned to being Setsuna. This, she well knew, was likely to be her best chance in a while to ask the older woman her question. Standing next to her Rei lightly touched her arm for a moment to get her attention and motioned for them to move away from the others. The two women discreetly put some distance between themselves and the rest of the group. Kuwabara joined them and Rei led them into the treeline.<p>

Once well out of anyone's hearing range Rei stopped them near an old red maple.

Taking a deep breath she explained about the shared vision. When she was done the Senshi of Fire asked, "Is it possible for Sailor Chaos to influence a vision from the Gates?"

Before Setsuna could answer Kuwabara asked, "The Gates?"

"Huh?" Rei said, then added, "Oh, right... You don't know about them."

"Actually, he does." Setsuna disagreed, surprising both of them.

She turned to Kuwabara and said, "Do you remember when you helped Yusuke and Kurama retrieve a stolen key? The silver one with the red gem?"

"Yeah, I wound up at these weird Gates by accident for a moment and then reappeared two hours later. We had to get the Garnet Orb right after that so that the Guardian of those gates could return to their post and keep the wrong people from trying to rewrite history the way they want it. It was an interesting week. So it's those Gates, huh?"

"Yes." Setsuna confirmed, "It's those Gates." She shifted her attention back to Rei and answered the miko's question, "The last time that we dealt with Chaos as a Sailor Senshi was when she was possessing Sailor Galaxia. Back then Chaos' abilities were somewhat limited to the nature of Galaxia's powers; it could only corrupt what was already there. This time we are dealing with the avatar of Chaos' power."

Setsuna took a deep breath and organized her thoughts. Once she was sure that she could explain it properly she continued.

"The true nature of Chaos is to facilitate change in the universe, but around the time that the Silver Millennium was created – long before Queen Serenity's reign – something... Happened. Chaos became corrupted. I don't know what it was that happened, but if what Sailor Chaos told Small Lady is true then it seems that one of Queen Serenity's ancestors – most likely another Serenity – separated Chaos from itself. But Chaos is more than just a facilitator of change; it is a force that existed before this universe was born. As Chaos' avatar this gives Sailor Chaos' access to the power in the moments before, during and just after the Big Bang."

The implications of that settled slowly on Rei as Kuwabara tried to make sense of what they were talking about. With all of the references to things he had no idea about it was understandable that he felt a little lost. He had no idea who Galaxia or Queen Serenity were, or what the Silver Millennium referred to (he was guessing that it was an era, though the 'created' part was making him doubt that). Kuwabara suddenly realized that there was a lot more history involved in this situation than the few years that the Sailor Senshi had been running around saving the day from bad guys. It sounded like this went back a few generations.

"...Her power is virtually limitless..." Rei finally said, feeling faint.

"**Potentially** limitless. Potential is not always realized."

"We should keep this from the others for now."

Setsuna nodded and said, "I agree." She then turned to Kuwabara and asked, "And you?"

He hesitated; he didn't want his friends jumping into something like this without at least a 'Heads-up!'.

"Agreed." Kurama said from behind Kuwabara, melting out of the shadows a scaring all three of them half to death.

They all turned to stare at him, the two women prepared for a fight, their heart-shaped transformation Crystals in their hands.

"One of these days Kurama," Kuwabara said as he recovered from his shock and the other two relaxed, their Crystals vanishing, "You're going to kill me of a heartattack."

"Or you'll get used to it." Kurama agreed.

"You don't do that often enough!"

"Actually, I do it fairly regularly."

There was a long and fairly awkward silence that followed as the two men stared at each other.

"...I am going to be paranoid for the rest of my life." Kuwabara finally said, "And aren't you supposed to be helping Chiba-san?"

Kurama smiled in amusement and said, "I've already mixed as many herbs as I can for the moment. In any case Trunks-san's injuries aren't as numerous as they seem. Very likely there will be leftover poultices." He left out that Mamoru had asked him to find out what the three of them were up to.

Kurama turned to Setsuna and Rei and said, "I think that it would be a good idea to inform Wind Master Jin of all of this though."

"What about Yusuke, then?" Kuwabara demanded, "He's saved are butts more than once – we can't just let him go in blind!"

"We can't just let him jump in either. If we tell him to much too soon..."

"He won't use any caution." Kuwabara finished his friend's sentence with a sigh, shoulder's slumping, "Alright. I get the point. He's gonna be pissed later though."

"We'll deal with that when it comes."

Setsuna finally pulled her tape recorder out and turned it off, surprising everyone. She held it out to Kurama, who stepped forward and took it.

"Give this to Jin-san – discreetly if you would. And use this," She held out a small tape for the recorder, "To record the rest of what Small Lady says." Setsuna's face turned sad and apologetic, "Unfortunately I have to leave for now and I don't know when I'll be able to get back. What I'm going to do could mean the difference between stopping Sailor Chaos and losing."

Kurama nodded, his face unreadable, and took the tape, tucking it into a pocket. He was the only one who noticed that she said 'stopping Sailor Chaos and losing' and not 'winning or losing'. He hoped that he was just being paranoid and that the phrasing meant nothing.

Setsuna took another deep breath – she did not want to leave when Small Lady was in such obvious pain, but there was no choice right now – and then she faded away, the air wavering around her until she was completely gone. The three left behind stared at where she had been – Kuwabara dumbfounded, Kurama with raised brows and Rei apprehensive – before giving themselves a mental shake and silently heading back to the rest of the group, each of them in their own thoughts.

* * *

><p>As they stepped out of the treeline Rei said quietly to Kurama, "Ask Ami-chan to let you read the transcript. Let her know that I asked you to read it." She hesitated a moment, then plunged on, deciding that if Minako, or the Princess had a problem with it then she would deal with the fallout, "Kuwabara-san come with me; I'll fill you in on some of the history behind this."<p>

Both men nodded silently.

Minako heard and saw what Rei did and decided that it was the right choice; she and Artemis had worked with Kuwabara in the past once. It had been while she was in disguise and working with the Special Division shortly after the Tokyo Water Poisoning.

Kuwabara and Rei walked back to the temple while Kurama walked towards the beautiful woman with the short blue hair and matching eyes. She was sitting with her laptop where Saitou Shin had previously been on the porch. Kurama had always liked her eyes; they sparkle like the light on the waves when she smiles and seem to be as vast and unfathomable as the deepest oceans when she's lost in thought. Kurama had very seriously considered asking Mizuno Ami out more than once. Unlike most women he didn't have to worry about his enemies trying to use her to hurt him – they'd fail. Any other woman that he could say the same about would was either spoken for or would be too much of a threat to his Human family. He wouldn't risk it. But Sailor Mercury was different; her enemies don't know her identity and she would never willing put innocents in harm's way.

Kurama came up behind her and watched her for several moments quietly. He noted what she was looking at, the book of lined paper with her tidy handwriting next to the laptop and also the color of her nail polish. He came around to stand beside her and waited for her to break the silence.

"You know, it's creepy when you just stand behind someone and stare at them like that." She commented without looking at him.

As the Senshi of Water he had since learnt that she can sense where all water is – including in plants, animals and people. It was about eight months after Sailor Moon had defeated Sailor Galaxia that a psychopath had decided to place a device to slowly release poison into Tokyo's water supply. The poison that was released was an extract from a North American and Canadian plant called Deadly Nightshade (related to the potato plant, surprisingly) that was very aptly named. Sailor Mercury, remembering how she had used her powers to identify a leak in an underground water pipe a few years prior had set to using her abilities to find where the poison was coming from. She had saved a lot of lives. Afterward Sailor Moon had healed all of the people that she could and Mamoru had done the same, though more discreetly than her. It was a very busy month for all of the Senshi since they had to help organize people to get them to Sailor Moon for healing. Luna was the busiest, though, because she had to keep the populace from deifying Sailor Moon (the black cat's contacts within the press had come in very handy to that end).

The entire incident did have one advantage however; everyone was emulating Sailor Moon's appearance to one degree or another, so no one thought much about Usagi's white hair and the crescent moon on her forehead... Although they did star alot. Her neighbors had since figured out who she is, but had decided to stay quiet about it for reasons that Kurama was unaware of. Maybe it had something to do with Yusuke (their neighbor on the right) threatening bodily harm to anyone who blabbed...

"It's not creepy," He replied calmly, "When you know that I'm standing there."

"...Actually, it's even creepier." Ami informed him.

"Oh? Is it?"

"Yes."

"Well, sorry, I guess."

Ami resisted the urge to sigh.

"What can I do for you Minamino-san?"

When talking to him she always used a certain amount of polite-speech with him, always keeping a distance between them that she wouldn't let him bridge. It was frustrating and the only reason that he hadn't asked her out on a date yet.

"Rei-san asked me to take a look at the transcript."

She finally turned her eyes from her laptop screen and looked up at him, a slight frown pulling at her lips. Her eyes had that deep fathomless, faraway quality to them that she got when thinking. Ami studied him silently for several moments. He waited, memorizing the look that would normally be directed at the horizon. He didn't mind the scrutiny in the least.

Finally, she nodded and said, "Give me a moment."

He watched as she closed a terminal that linked her to the Eternity Main System (he and Yusuke had worked with the Senshi to stop an international terrorist group, so he was familiar with certain things) and closed a text document before un-minimizing another. Satisfied, Ami silently got up and gestured for him to sit. Kurama took the invitation, sitting down where she had been (her scent left a 'silhouette' where she had been a moment before that he was very aware of) and started reading while she stood behind him. He didn't blame her for doing so; she had seen him hack into computers before and even the Eternity Main System. That had been after the incident with the stolen key and Garnet Orb; the girls had nearly killed him and he still owed their Princess for stopping them.

As Kurama read the transcript his eyes took on a cold cast as he wondered how they might get Sailor Chaos into Makai. Ninigenkai (the plain of existence – for lack of a better descriptive – that the Human race exists on) was not likely to survive a fight with Sailor Chaos in one recognizable piece. Makai (the 'Spirit World'), however, could more than take a pounding from Sailor Chaos. Better still; there were literally countless people there who – even if they can't kill her – can and will make her life uncomfortable and even difficult. There were even those in Makai who just might be able to kill her and save them the effort. Finding them would be very difficult.

He started formulating a plan. If they could make this work then using the Humans to fight Sailor Chaos would be a last-ditch effort to stop her; their primary job would be, instead, to save lives by protecting other Humans from things like Sailor Chaos' Hounds and getting civilians to safety.

Kurama grabbed Ami's notebook next to the laptop and flipped it to a blank page. Behind him Ami frowned; she would have appreciated it if he had asked first, but she was too curios to make an issue out of it immediately. Her eyebrows shot up as he started writing down possible ways of getting Sailor Chaos to Makai, the advantages of doing so (and of each possibility) and the disadvantages. He then started making a list of seemingly random names.

"That..." Ami said thoughtfully, "Just may increase or chances."

"That was the general idea. But I'm going to need to talk with Jin and a couple of others before we can come up with anything solid..."

Jin for his connections mostly, though Kurama would be surprised if he didn't decide to fight Sailor Chaos. The others he needed for similar reason, but wasn't counting on any of them to readily fight Sailor Chaos unless there was no other recourse.

"I think I would like to be there for that conversation." Ami told him.

"I doubt that they will object."

That was when Yusuke and the others arrived.

"Yo!" Yusuke the ex-punk called very loudly from the top of the temple stairs.

Kurama rolled his eyes as the Senshi all extended their senses out to the new-comers. To their collective surprise they recognized one of the people Yusuke had brought with him.

* * *

><p>"Yeesh, where is everybody?" Yusuke asked no-one as he scanned the temple grounds in front of him for the others.<p>

Urameshi Yusuke was formerly a punk and proud of it (at the time; now he doesn't care one way or the other). When he was fourteen he tried to save a toddler from getting hit by a car and got himself killed instead. That was when a bubbly, blue-haired and pink-eyed Farrier of the Dead picked him up. She then announced, to his annoyance, that not only would the child have been perfectly fine without Yusuke's attempt to save him – Yusuke himself had died several years prematurely and for no good reason since the toddler would have actually had one less scrape if he hadn't interfered. Because Yusuke had died so much earlier than he was supposed to their was no place to put him in the afterlife so he was given a second chance. This eventually culminated in his being resurrected and then working for the Makai co-ruler and son of Enma, Coenma, as a Spirit Detective. After Yusuke saved everyone's butts a few times it was discovered that he was part Youkai when he fought a previous Spirit Detective who had gone crazy (for good reason). During that fight his ancestor had possessed him to defeat the other Detective, bringing out Yusuke's Youkai blood. This made Enma decide that Yusuke was too dangerous to leave alive.

Eventually Yusuke wound up meeting his ancestor – who was still alive at the time and named Raizen – and was trained by him for a year. Raizen had to eat Humans in order to live. After the Human woman he had fallen in love with had died he had foregone eating Humans entirely as he waited for her to be reborn (so that he wouldn't accidentally eat her). As a result Yusuke's training ended not because Raizen was done teaching him, but because Raizen finally died of starvation. This lead to a power vacuum that set the two most powerful Youkai Lords poised for war against each other to take claim of Raizen's territory. Knowing that he wasn't powerful enough to hang onto Raizen's lands Yusuke averted war by setting up a tournament – that anyone can participate in – to determine the next ruler for Makai. The tournament was won by a friend of Raizen's named Enki.

Sometime later Enma was over-thrown by his own son. Coenma discover that his father had been making Youkai cause trouble for Humans (thereby justifying the barrier Enma had put up between Makai and the Human world) by brainwashing them. Coenma was now the ruler of half of Makai by dint of taking over his father's territory.

After that, inter-racial trouble between Humans and Youkai became very nearly non-existent because Youkai and Human affairs rarely cross or have anything to do with each other... And that's how Urameshi Yusuke went from saving everyone's butts to running a small Ramen booth near the hospital where Mamoru was doing his practicum.

At the moment the former punk/Detective has wearing flip-flops, cargo shorts that went down to his knees and a light green T-shirt.

Currently with Yusuke was Wind Master Jin, Ice master Toya and a young boy named Rinku. The other three that would normally have been with Jin, Toya and Rinku were either hung-hover, on a date or locked up in their 'lab' (which nobody wanted to enter for any reason).

"You still can't sense reiki very well can you?" Jin asked, half teasing with slight disbelief in response to Yusuke's question.

Jin was taller than everyone else present, had an unruly mop of scarlet hair, cheerful, pale blue eyes, a thirteen year old's face and was ripped from a long life of fighting. At the moment he was wearing Human clothes to blend in at least a little. Jin was wearing plain jeans (there was hole in one of the knees), a white T-shirt (he almost wore only a vest for his top, but Rinku talked him out of it) and black Birkenstock sandals (two, wide, buckle straps over the top of the foot, one going across the heel, a cork sole and good tread).

Reiki is the combination of ki that the Super Saiyans use and the powers that Sailor Senshi make use of.

"Nah, I can sense it just fine these days – just not if I'm anywhere near the women who happen to be here right now. They've got so much power it's mind-numbing. See if you can sense anything."

The other three focused. Jin and Toya could both sense reiki, but – try as he might – Rinku couldn't sense anything. In the time that the boy had been alive he had only ever come across a handful of people – Yusuke among them – who were so powerful that people who could sense energy had the ability shut down in their presence as a psychological defense mechanism.

"Princess Serenity..." Jin breathed, dumbfounded.

"Are you certain?" Toya asked.

He knew that his friend was far older than he appeared, even by Youkai standards and that he had known both Princess Serenity and her mother.

Toya himself was short, with powder-blue hair slicked back against his skull (it looked almost like he had used ice to keep in in place) and had three, mid-green – almost teal – spikes angling downward on the left side of his face. His eyes were long and narrow and the same color as his hair. He came up to ruffly Jin's shoulder and was wearing blue sneakers, blue pants and a blue sleeveless shirt that he had thrown a white button-down over top of.

"Don't be stupid; Princess Serenity is just a story." Rinku reminded them bluntly.

Rinku looked like a little boy, but was actually over two hundred years old. He had large eyes with small, green irises, a cheerful face, brown hair mostly hidden under a red baseball cap and three bright pink stars following the line of his cheekbone under his left eye. He was wearing an orange Sailor-V T-shirt (he had recently discovered the Sailor-V game) and some plain, dark blue, knee-length shorts. On his feet were white sneakers that were in desperate need of being replaced. On his belt – hidden under his shirt – was a dark green velcroed-shut pouch resting on his right hip.

"No she's not." Jin, Toya and – surprising the others – Yusuke all said at the same time.

They all stared at the former Detective in shock. Sensing their attention Yusuke glanced over his shoulder at them and explained.

"She's my neighbor and a friend of Keiko's... What?"

Before they could answer a little girl's voice exclaimed, "Jin?!"

Everyone looked over in the direction that the voice had come from to find a girl with ambiguously-shaded gray eyes, freckles and braided red-brown hair coming from the direction of the Auxiliary Shrines. She was wearing a miko's red hakama over a white kimono. On her face was a look of dumbfounded shock.

"Fauna?" Jin asked, shocked – like her – and cautious.

"...It's Kaede now..." She answered, her expression changing to one of suspicion as she cautiously approached to within ten feet of the group.

Jin wasn't surprised. The Chief of Security for the Silver Millennium had been his father (whom he looks almost identical to) and had been the one to let Queen Beryl into the Silver Millennium. After the Silver Millennium's fall Jin – who, along with several others, had been evacuated to Earth at the time – had headed back to the moon and checked the security recordings. He had watched as his father destroyed their home and ran Fauna through with the knife he had always kept on his belt. The man had survived and gotten away before Queen Serenity had sent everyone to be reborn in the future. Jin had gone back to Earth and eventually met up with his father again. He was forced to complete his training in order to survive, though Jin never forgave his father.

Between the time that Jin began his training again and when his father had died on a suicide mission two decades ago he had noticed that the older man would not use, nor touch a knife for any reason. Instead he had strictly stuck to staves and that was what had gotten him killed in the end; he had never been more than above average with those particular weapons. He never did find out what his father's mission had been, only that he had completed it.

Jin had been glad to see the traitor on his funeral pyre, though he would have preferred to have been the one to put him there. After that Jin had sought out a different life along with some others. He and Toya had been the only ones in their group to stick together after they won through to their new lives.

"The Mistress has already okayed their presence." A female voice said from somewhere.

They all looked around, trying to pinpoint where it had come from, but with no luck.

"As long as she's sure." Kaede responded.

"She is. And she is aware of his father's betrayal," The voice answered, making Jin wince, "But has chosen to trust him for now, as has Princess Serenity."

Jin finally recognized the voice as belonging to Deimos, one of Sailor Mars' Guardians. As soon as he realized who was talking it was easy to spot her sitting on the peak of the temple roof with her sister.

He wasn't surprised that the Moon Princess was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he was surprised that Sailor Mars had chosen to.

"Fine." Kaede answered grudgingly, then said to the others as she spun on her heels, "Follow me."

They hurried to catch up with the retreating girl and Yusuke nearly collided with her as they rounded the corner of the temple. She went wide-eyed, but Yusuke managed to stop in time.

"You're lucky I've got fast reflexes kid." Yusuke commented.

"...Sorry; I was waiting for you to catch up." She replied.

Kaede hesitated a moment, debating if she should just start walking again, say for them to follow, or just use a gesture. With a mental shrug she started walking again without a word or gesture. She and her sister, Ume, had been found by Luna and Artemis while the two cats were in Human form and on a date. The two siblings had been very badly injured; it had taken Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion to heal them. The reason that they hadn't been simply taken to a hospital was because of the glowing symbols on their foreheads at the time. Once they had been healed the symbols had vanished. As for where the injuries had come from... They were identical to the ones that they had received when the Silver Millennium fell. The ongoing theory was that their idetic memory had caused them to remember their past lives so vividly that the injuries had returned. It was the same idea as VR being so convincing that a person could die in real life if they died in VR. The problem for Kaede and Ume was that their memories had been idetic during their previous lives, but not their current. This meant that their memories from their previous lives were more vivid and real to them than the ones from their current lives. When this had become apparent the two got permission from their parents and Rei took them to live at the temple with her and her grandfather.

Ume took well to temple life; Kaede was having trouble, but she wouldn't say anything to the others about it – not even to her sister. She was still more used to being the younger sister of Sailor Jupiter and a competent commander among the Silver Millennium's security personnel that people said 'Yes ma'am!' to. She wasn't always sure how to behave around modern Humans. Ume was shier and quieter, but she was at least able to understand what was socially acceptable and what was rude. It wasn't until they came into sight range of the rest of the group that Kaede realized that she should have said something along the lines of 'C'mon.'

She mentally kicked herself and then announced them. She almost did it the way she would have back on the Silver Millennium, but, before it could get out of her mouth Kaede changed what she said.

"They're here!"

She thought that it was lame, but at least she sounded like she was from the current era.

Everybody looked over, saw Jin first (his height and hair drew their eyes very effectively), then Toya (for the same reason that they had spotted Jin first), followed by Yusuke and then Rinku. The Sailor-V T-shirt got a few raised eyebrows and some amusement.

"Like Sailor-V?" The woman herself asked.

"I like the games," He answered, "They're a lot of fun to play. They're the only video games I've ever played that actually reflect a person's ability to fight in real life. It's kind of cool."

"I'd just like to know why it adapts to a person's own abilities and techniques." Toya interjected.

The girls and Mamoru all turned bland looks on Artemis, who had – at the currently sleeping Diana's request – brought himself and his now-blind kitten outside to sit in the shade. Luna, who was sitting on the other side of the bundle of blankets, gave her husband an equally bland look and asked, "Artemis... What did you do to the Sailor-V game?"

"Nothing!" The white-haired man in question said defensively, "That's the way I made the game in the first place. A company found out that no one was taking credit for the game and got the copyrights for it. When they couldn't make their own version they just copied my code and tried to place it on game CDs. When that didn't work they switched to DVDs. It fit, but just barely and several of the algorithms were completely scrambled in the process. Sailor Venus and I saved one of the programmers working on it and they told us their problem, which led to my idea to get royalties from Sailor Senshi products. The only thing that I did was fix the scrambled algorithms. Took me about three hours. But that's all I did!"

"Alright." Luna all-but sighed.

Everyone else that knew him – except Minako – stared at him, utterly dumbfounded. They had known that Artemis claims to be a smart tomcat, but they had never really thought it was much more than boasting on his part. None of them had realized that he had made the Sailor-V game from the ground up. Venus had learnt about all of this when the whole incident with the programmer had happened, so she was well over the shock.

Minako stepped forward to stand in front of Yusuke and the others. Jin tensed.

"Alright then!" She announced brusquely, "Lets get the introductions out of the way! Jin, Yusuke, you guys already know all of use except Small Lady," She pointed to the girl in question where she was sitting at one of the tables, slowly eating while Princess Serenity was hoovering her own next to her, "Her adviser, Diana, daughter of Luna and Artemis," She indicated the nest of fabric sitting between Artemis and Luna, "And Trunks – yes, that's really his name." She indicated the lavender-haired, burly young man also eating at the table (Yusuke managed to keep a straight face, but just barely), "Since we remember you, Jin, and already know Yusuke-kun no introductions necessary there; we'll give you our civilian names as we go. Find a seat, or someone you want to catch up with and one of them will fill you in on whats been going on."

Jin looked around the courtyard and went to sit with Usagi and Small Lady. Seeing where he was going Minako called over her shoulder, "Feel free to eat if you're hungry; Makoto – that's Sailor Jupiter – made a lot of food."

"Thank-you." He replied

Jin he bowed to Usagi before grabbing a plate and loading up. Spending the last several millennia in Makai being a Shinobi had taught Jin to eat when he can... Besides it was rude in Lunarian culture to not eat after food has been offered.

"Yusuke-kun." Usagi called from the table as Jin made his selections.

"Yeah?"

"Can we trust them with our identities?" She asked, indicating the other two.

"Don't worry about these guys; they wont breath a word of who you are to anyone." Turning back to Minako he said, "I'll let you introduce the squirt and the shorty."

With that he walked away leaving Minako to wonder which one was supposed to be 'the Squirt' and which one was 'the shorty'. After a moment's debate she decided that the first one was the kid and the second was the blue-haired young man. She noticed that the latter had power that felt similar to Mercury's, although it was decidedly different.

Yusuke made a bee-line for Makoto, saying as he did, "Usagi said that you wanted a recipe of mine."

By now both Chibas were used to Yusuke not bothering with honorifics; he was like that with everyone. Usagi had been somewhat shocked at first and Mamoru was still a bit annoyed by it. Poor Keiko had spent a lot of time apologizing at first until the two of them told her that it was fine and to stop worrying about it; they don't expect her to control his behavior or be responsible for it.

Kurama had just opened his mouth to reprimand Yusuke and remind him to use his manners when Jin beat him to it with a snarled 'Manners!' and a gesture that manipulated the wind to send the former Detective flying straight into the trees... Much to the shock of everyone present. Jin immediately calmed back down, then saw the look on Small Lady's face and explained as he took a seat across from her and Usagi.

"I don't mind bad manners, just not when it's directed at Princess Serenity."

"Oh." The pink haired girl said into her food, though she continued to watch him from under her brows in confusion.

Jin had eaten a few bites – everyone had gone back to what they were doing (putting the last bandage on Trunks in Mamoru's case) – when Small Lady spoke up again.

"Why?"

He considered what to say and how to phrase it before answering.

"Before the Silver Millennium fell Venus was in charge of Princess Serenity's personal guard. I was in training to be in charge of the Silver Millennium's security when the Princess took the throne. That meant being her spy." And occasionally her assassin, but he didn't add that part, "I only took my orders from her; not even Queen Serenity could boss me around. To do that job required that I was unwaveringly loyal to the Princess so I was raised from birth be so. To a certain extent it's just ingrained in me even after all of this time, but she also earned my loyalty through her deeds and her words."

Small Lady regarded him for a few moments. He waited. Jin, as he had just said, was trained to be a spy since birth. Even after walking away from being a Shinobi some habits were so natural to him and ingrained that he didn't know how to function without them. Often he didn't even think that they were unusual in the first place (or just occasionally creepy). Toya had a similar problem. One of those habits for Jin was to keep track of Princess Serenity. Ever since he had become aware of the fact that she had finally been reincarnated he had been keeping tabs on her. As a direct result of this – and some hacking – he knew full well that Small Lady is Princess Serenity's daughter from the future. Luna and Artemis really needed to update the Command Center's security system.

"What's your name?" Small Lady finally asked.

"Wind Master Jin. No surname; can't afford one as a spy." He replied.

He didn't explain that the 'no surname' rule also meant 'no marrying' under Lunarian lay. Most people back then hadn't known about that law anyway and it was easier on the heart to not talk about it (or be pitied because of it). So he didn't mention it. If she asked, he would tell her.

Instead Jin asked her what her name is just so that he had an excuse for why he knows her name. It wouldn't due to slip-up and then have to explain why he knows who she is. Of course that meant he would have to get her story from her or one of the others at some point. This was one of those ingrained habits; to be sneaky and secretive.

"...Chiba Usagi Small Lady Serenity of the White Moon."

"Well, ain't that a mouthful." He commented, earning a small smile in response.

It took Yusuke another half an hour to find his way back. He apologized once he did and didn't forget to use honorifics again for the rest of the day. He also remembered to use 'please', 'thank-you' and 'you're welcome'. Keiko would have been furious with Yusuke because she had been trying to get him to use is manners for years without any success. He and Makoto swapped recipes until it was his turn to read the transcript.

* * *

><p><em>Spelunking. It had to be spelunking.<em> Tenoh Haruka thought dejectedly as they climbed through a narrow tunnel.

Several weeks ago Haruka – also known as Sailor Uranus – made a bet with her adopted daughter, Hotaru. The bet was that if Hotaru – known to the world as Sailor Saturn – could best Haruka in a race she could have a car of her own. Haruka would not let her daughter drive unless the sixteen year old was good enough to weave through traffic like a pro. Hotaru won and Haruka had a small conniption fit about her daughter driving so Hotaru made a deal with her mother; she'll wait until she's eighteen before she starts driving if they all go on vacation. The catch was that the vacation had to be of her choice.

And she had picked spelunking.

_I should have seen this coming,_ Haruka thought morosely, _She's been bugging us since she turned fifteen to try this._

But Haruka and her partner – in both romance and in their duties as Senshi – Kaioh Michiru were not keen on the idea of climbing through precarious and narrow tunnels with literally tons of dirt and rock over their heads.

Up ahead of them was their guide and instructor with Hotaru close behind, followed by Haruka and then Michiru (Sailor Neptune). Haruka, Michiru and Setsuna were all Hotaru's legal mothers. This resulted in Hotaru having three surnames, plus her – now-dead – father's, making for a total of four surnames.

Several years ago Hotaru, as Sailor Saturn, had laid down her life to stop an evil entity from invading the Sol System, starting with Earth. She had then returned as an infant and – since she had no family – the three Outer Senshi adopted her and had been raising Hotaru ever since.

"Sir!" Hotaru called to the instructor.

"Yes, sweatheart?" He called back.

"Haruka-papa and Michiru-mama are falling behind!"

Hotaru called Haruka 'papa' because she tended to be fairly masculine and Michiru was 'mama' because she was very feminine. Even with her naturally aqua-green and wavy hair tucked up under her lantern-mounted helmet she still looked soft and undeniably female.

The instructor looked over his shoulder to confirm what Hotaru had said. He was dark-skinned, dark-haired, garnet-eyed – and the reincarnation of Sailor Pluto's brother. During Queen Serenity's time the throne's heir was determined by merit, not order of birth. As such royal families normally had many children to ensure a good heir to the throne. In the last eighteen months all of the Senshi had, for some reason, been running into reincarnations of the royal families and their retainers. Some of those people remember and others don't. In the case of their instructor (named Ramses Underworld, of all things), he remembered everything.

"Hey, you guys having trouble back there?" Ramses called.

"Just give us a moment!" Haruka called back, "We're not finding this as easy as you guys!"

In their previous incarnations there had been a running bet on whether Ramses (not his name at the time; it had been 'Black') was gay or not. Princess Uranus had won the bet when he developed a massive crush on his cousin, Princess Saturn.

"Alright!" Ramses answered, "We've just got ten more meters to go and then we'll be at a place where we can take a break!"

"Thanks!" She called back.

Michiru was too busy trying to keep her footing to answer Ramses.

* * *

><p>They all plunked down on the stony ground staring in wonder at the sight around them. The cavern was strategically lit to showcase the white and yellow, roiling, cloud-like formations all around and under them of the massive calcite cave. The cloud-like calcite was from when the cave had been completely submerged underwater. At various points the cave walls looked like frosted Shredded Wheats from when the water table had risen and fallen. There were places where stalagmites and stalactites had merged into towering pillars that tapered inward within five feet from the cave floor, only to flare out again. Against one of the walls was a large, yellow flowstone dam filled with mineral-rich water. Scattered throughout the cave were formations of more flowstone, though these looked very different from the dam. These ones had caps of smooth stone with what looked like numerous slender stalks each leading down to the cave floor.<p>

What made this cave particularly unique was two factors: One) the combination of the cave's size and the cloud-like formation of most of the calcite and two) the flowstone with the stalks appeared to be free-standing, rather than against a wall like you would find in any other cave.

"Hey, Firefly?" Haruka said after a while as she continued to admire the breath-taking sight.

"Yes, Haruka-papa?"

"You wanna do this again next year?"

"That sounds like a good idea." Michiru added.

"Sure." Their daughter replied, "But we're not going to have to wait that long."

All three adults – Haruka, Michiru and Ramses – turned to stare at sixteen year old in surprise. Pluto's form faded in among them then and she had to clear her throat to get their attention, scaring the adults half to death. Ramses even let out a frightened shout. He had never gotten the chance to meet his elder sister in his previous life since he had been born several years after she had Awakened as a Senshi, at which point she had been posted at the Gates of Time and Space. Once a Senshi Awakens it is time for them to take up their duties; delaying it has invariably led to disaster in the past. Prince Black – Ramses in his past life – had often wondered what she would have been like.

And his first time getting to finally see her in person (he had seen portraits of her) she scares the living daylights out of him because she made a discreet entrance out of sheer habit. His cry startled her as much as her unexpected appearance had startled everyone else.

"I-I'm sorry..." She said to him, flustered and clutching her staff, "I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's alright," Ramses replied, "You just startled me."

"...Sorry."

"It's fine, it's fine."

"Well," Haruka piped up, having recovered quickly from her surprise, "This is an awkward first meeting for two siblings."

"Huh?" Pluto responded, turning her attention to her friend and feeling baffled.

She had never looked in on her family after taking up her duties; it had been to painful.

"Previous life. Your parents had another child a few years after you Awakened."

"Oh... I never knew." Pluto turned to him and gave him a small, brief bow, "Nice to meet you," She straightened, "But I'm afraid I'm here on Senshi business."

"Ah, that's fine, but I'm not going anywhere."

"Of course not. That would be dangerous. Besides... They're going to need you're help."

Hotaru calmly munched on her granola bar as the other three digested what Pluto had told them. Small Lady's story and left them feeling cold, dumbfounded and furious all at the same time. None of them knew what to say. Now that they knew about Trunks they (Ramses included) could sense him, burning like a small sun in their minds. It made Haruka and Michiru uneasy, though Pluto had assured them that he was an ally they could trust. Hotaru's ability to see the future had shown her most of the future Small Lady had come from, so she trusted Trunks and the others at the Gates. It was Michiru and Haruka who were having trouble trusting the new-comers, but they've always been like that.

Ramses, to his credit, was staying neutral on the matter.

"So..." Ramses said, finally breaking the silence, "Where do I come into this?"

"Sailor Chaos can't close the Gates to Elision yet, but she will be able to six months from now. If she closes the right Gates then she will be able to create a cascade effect that closes the rest for her. You, Ramses, know where those Gates are."

"I **do**?" He asked incredulously.

"Yes. You've been to all of them. All of the Gates call on the five elements to work, but the key Gates are more strongly aligned to one element than others."

"**Oh**..." He said, "I have been to them... It's impossible to pass through them. Why can they cause the other Gates to Elision to close?"

"Because they are the Key Gates that allow the others to operate. Once they're secured we can secure other Gates to prevent Sailor Chaos from shutting them. And it's not impossible to pass through Key Gates – it's just impossible for Humans. Every planet that supports sentient life, does not support only **one** sentient life; it supports a minimum of three. Earth supports far more than that. The Gates are not meant solely for Human use; they are meant to be used by many races. What Sailor Chaos is doing affects all life on this planet."

Ramses digested that for a moment. As he did Hotaru pulled the last bite of her granola bar out of it's wrapper and stuffed it in the small backpack that she had brought with her as she chewed.

Finally, Ramses nodded, stood and said, "Well, the Earth Gate is about an hour away, you guys up for it?"

In answer they all started packing up whatever they needed to.

* * *

><p>An hour later and they – minus Pluto, who had to leave since she didn't have the spelunking equipment on to go with them – were standing in front of opaque, white crystal spires that seemed to go in every direction... And were so large that they all felt like under-sized sugar ants next to just one of them. It was only then that they realized the sheer scale of the Gates.<p>

Remember the lyrics to an English-language kids song that she had once heard, all Haruka could think was, _'It's a small world after all' my ass!_

Now they just needed to figure out how to secure something so big...

"Hotaru," Michiru spoke up, "I think that we're going to need your power to secure something of this... Size."

"I know." The sixteen year old answered, "This would have been easier if we had started sooner like I wanted."

"Waitaminute!" Haruka exclaimed, "**That's** why you were bugging us to go spelunking the entire time?"

"Yup."

"Why didn't you just say so?" She demanded.

"Because I at least wanted us to have some fun... Besides; it would have tipped off Sailor Chaos."

"Sorry sweatheart." Michiru apologized, "We'll pay closer attention next time."

"It's alright and thank you."

"In the meantime," Michiru went on, turning to Haruka, "Lover you need to regulate Hotaru's power while she secures the Gate." She turned to her daughter as a thought occurred to her, "How exactly are you going secure this," She gestured to the crystals, "Gate?"

"By wrapping it in a protective and adaptable net."

"I think that will take Haruka and I both to help you-"

Hotaru was already shaking her head 'no'. She explained.

"That would be to much regulation of my power. Besides wind and metal are the extreme ends of the same element." Wind being Sailor Uranus' element, "Wind is flexible and constantly shifting and changing. Metal is hard and rigid; unyielding. The best blades incorporate a balance of those two aspects of the element. A blade must be flexible enough to not shatter, but rigid enough to both hold it's form and it's edge." She smiled mysteriously, "A good shield is made the same way."

Surprised, Michiru nodded her understanding. The teen had just said that Haruka's power made her ideal for helping Hotaru create a strong shield. She was also suggesting that it might not just be strictly defensive. Michiru wouldn't put it past the two to make the shield offensive as well. In fact she would do the exact same thing if she could.

Hotaru went over to the crystal formation and started walking near it to find where she would have to put the first anchor-point of her shield to start. Haruka followed close behind, while Michiru and Ramses hung back, out of their way. It occurred to Michiru as she watched them that since this Gate was so strongly aligned to earth as an element her powers being aligned with water could seriously weaken it since water muddies Earth.

_Should have thought of that..._ Michiru thought, deciding that she was going to need to read up on feng shui.

She couldn't remember how Earth and Metal interact. If she recalled correctly Metal drains Earth, but Haruka was using the Wind aspect of Metal, so maybe it would be alright...? She needed to look that one up too.

Time passed and Hotaru found where she needed to start. She, with Haruka acting as the control for her power, began.

Ramses – who had been watching the other two intently up until then – leaned over to talk to Michiru quietly enough to not disturb what the others were doing, despite the echoing quality of the cave, "Can you tell me about..." He hesitated, "About Pluto?"

Michiru leaned towards him to speak just as quietly, "I think you're going to get the chance to learn about her first-hand in the months to come."

He nodded, simultaneously pleased and disappointed by her response.

Meanwhile Hotaru adjusted her powers to compensate against Wind/Metal's drain on the Gate and wove a protective net around the entire structure. The Gate, she found – much to her surprise – was artificial and she wondered who had made it.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** So, opinions on Ramses, Kaede and Ume? Like them? Dislike them? How about on Jin's role during Queen Serenity's reign? Any opinions? Good idea? Bad idea?


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